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Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas negotiating team in Qatar seemed like another escalation that pushed the prospect of peace out of reach.

The attack on 9 September violated the territorial integrity of an US partner and risked widening the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

Instead, it proved to be a key moment that culminated in a deal, announced by President Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

This is a objective that he, and President Joe Biden before him, had pursued for almost 24 months.

It is just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

Yet if this agreement holds, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that escaped Biden and his administration.

Trump's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have played a role in this breakthrough.

But, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also elements at play beyond the control of either man.

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president often states that Israel has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by actions.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to the contested capital and abandoned a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the view under international law.

When Israel began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in June, Trump ordered American aircraft to target the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those public demonstrations of support may have given Trump the room to apply more influence on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in the summer, even hitting a place of worship, the US president pressured his counterpart to change course.

The leader exhibited a level of will and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, according to an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an US leader literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

Joe Biden's relationship with Netanyahu's government was consistently more strained.

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" held that the US had to embrace the nation openly in order to allow it to moderate the country's military actions behind closed doors.

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of support for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took endangered fracturing his own political backing, whereas his successor's solid Republican base provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the simple fact that, during his term, the Israeli government was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its northern border greatly diminished and the coastal strip devastated, every one of its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Secure Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which resulted in the death of a local national but no Hamas officials, led the president to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president lent US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. However an strike on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

A number of administration figures have told the press that this was a turning point which motivated the president to apply full force to finalize an agreement.

The leader's strong connections with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began each of his administrations with official trips to the kingdom. Recently, he also visited in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

The president's normalization agreements, which established ties between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months helped shift his perspective, says Ed Husain of the a policy institute. The US president did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where he received repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, Trump sat close as Netanyahu himself phoned Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on the president's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming the president's relationship with Netanyahu gave him the room to influence Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Muslim leaders may have secured their support, and helped them persuade the group to commit to the deal.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with the militants," notes Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to achieve this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the demands of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have faced, and Trump appears to do with some success."

The reality that the president is much more popular in the nation than Netanyahu personally was an advantage that Trump used to his benefit, the expert continues.

Now Israel has committed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians held in its jails and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will free all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken in the initial October 7 assault, which caused the loss of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

An end to the war, which has led to the destruction of Gaza and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal