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Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas negotiating team in Qatar seemed like yet another intensification that pushed the hope of peace further away.

This strike on September 9 violated the sovereignty of an American ally and threatened widening the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.

Instead, it turned out to be a key moment that has led in a agreement, declared by President Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

This is a goal that Trump, and President Joe Biden previously, had sought for almost 24 months.

It is just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout are still to be negotiated.

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

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

However, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also factors at play beyond the influence of either man.

Strong Ties Which Biden Never Had

Publicly, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has described him as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the White House". Moreover these warm words have been backed up by actions.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump relocated the American diplomatic mission in the country from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the position under international law.

After Israel began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in the summer, Trump directed American aircraft to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those public demonstrations of backing may have given the president the leeway to apply more influence on the Israeli government behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's negotiator, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into agreeing to a halt in fighting in return for the release of a number of captives.

When Israel attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, including bombing a place of worship, the US president urged Netanyahu to alter tactics.

Trump exhibited a degree of will and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an US leader literally telling an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

Joe Biden's relationship with the Israeli administration was always more strained.

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" held that the United States had to support the nation openly in order to enable it to influence the nation's war conduct behind closed doors.

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of support for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move the leader took risked fracturing his own political backing, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to act.

In the end, domestic politics or individual ties 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 his new administration, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, every one of its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Secure Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which killed a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

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

A number of administration figures have told media outlets that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the president to exert maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are widely known. He has commercial interests with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also visited in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The president's normalization agreements, which established ties between Israel and a number of Arab nations, including the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits devoted in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not travel to the country on this regional tour but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where he received consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, the president sat close as the prime minister personally called the Qatari leadership to express regret. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming the president's relationship with Netanyahu gave him the room to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and helped them convince the group to agree to the deal.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump gained influence 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 warring sides has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have faced, and he seems to do relatively successfully."

The reality that Trump is much more popular in Israel than Netanyahu himself was an advantage that he employed to his advantage, he adds.

Now Israel has committed to releasing over a thousand detainees held in its jails and has consented to a limited pullback from Gaza.

The group will release all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, taken during the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the loss of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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