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Initially, Israel's air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar appeared like yet another escalation that drove the prospect of a ceasefire further away.

This strike on September 9 violated the territorial integrity of an American ally and risked expanding the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

However, it proved to be a pivotal event that has led in a deal, declared by President Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

That represents a objective that he, and Joe Biden previously, had sought for almost 24 months.

This marks just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the details of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout remain to be worked out.

Yet if this deal holds, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that escaped Biden and his administration.

Trump's unique style and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Arab world appear to have played a role in this breakthrough.

However, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also elements at play beyond the influence of both leaders.

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

In public, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump likes to say that Israel has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the White House". And these positive statements have been backed up by actions.

During his initial time in office, Trump moved the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and abandoned a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under global norms.

After Israel began its air strikes against Iran in June, Trump directed American aircraft to target the nation's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those public demonstrations of backing may have allowed the president the leeway to exert more influence on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of some hostages.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in the summer, including hitting a Christian church, the US president pressured Netanyahu to change course.

The leader exhibited a level of will and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, says an analyst of the a think tank. "There is no example of an American president directly instructing an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

Joe Biden's relationship with Netanyahu's government was always more tenuous.

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" argued that the United States had to support the nation publicly in order to enable it to influence the country's military actions in private.

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step Biden took endangered fracturing his own political backing, whereas his successor's solid Republican base gave him more flexibility to act.

In the end, domestic politics or individual ties may have had less importance than the simple fact that, throughout his term, Israel was unwilling to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its northern border greatly diminished and Gaza in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted the president to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president provided American military might to Israeli operations in Iran. But an attack on Qatari territory was a separate issue entirely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to end the war.

Several administration figures have told the press that this was a turning point which galvanised the leader to apply full force to finalize an agreement.

The leader's close ties with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has commercial interests with Qatar and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump also visited in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, including the UAE, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year helped change his thinking, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not travel to the country on this Middle East trip but visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the state where he received repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, the president was present nearby as the prime minister himself called Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the prime minister gave approval on the president's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming Trump's alliance with his counterpart gave him the room to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and assisted them convince the group to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with Hamas," notes an analyst of the a research center.

"That made a difference. The capacity to achieve this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the demands of the combatants has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and he seems to handle with some success."

The reality that the president is much more popular in Israel than the prime minister personally was leverage that he employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Now the Israeli government has committed to freeing over a thousand Palestinians imprisoned in its jails and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

The group will free all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured in the initial October 7 assault, which caused the loss of more than 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the war, which has resulted in the devastation of Gaza and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal