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At first, Israel's air strike on the Hamas delegation in Qatar seemed like yet another intensification that pushed the prospect of peace further away.

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

Diplomacy seemed to be collapsing.

However, it proved to be a key moment that has led in a agreement, declared by Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

This is a goal that Trump, and Joe Biden before him, had pursued for nearly two years.

It is just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the details of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be negotiated.

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

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

But, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also elements involved beyond the control of either man.

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

In public, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president likes to say that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

During his initial time in office, the president moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and abandoned a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under international law.

When the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, the US leader directed American aircraft to strike the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These public demonstrations of backing may have given Trump the room to exert more influence on Israel behind the scenes. According to reports, Trump's envoy, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of a number of captives.

After Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in the summer, even hitting a Christian church, Trump pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader exhibited a degree of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, says Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an American president literally telling an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

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

His administration's "bear hug strategy" argued that the United States had to support the nation publicly in order to allow it to moderate the country's military actions behind closed doors.

Underneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of support for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Each move the leader took endangered fracturing his own political backing, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the reality that, throughout his term, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Several months into his new administration, with Iran chastened, Hezbollah to its northern border greatly diminished and Gaza in ruins, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which resulted in the death of a local national but no Hamas officials, prompted the president to deliver an final demand to Netanyahu. The war had to end.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. The president lent US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatari territory was a separate issue entirely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have informed the press that this was a turning point which motivated the leader to apply maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

The leader's close ties with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. He began both his presidential terms with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also visited in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, including the UAE, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not visit the country on this regional tour but went to the UAE, the kingdom and the state where the leader received consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump sat nearby as the prime minister personally phoned Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of key Muslim nations in the region.

If Trump's alliance with his counterpart gave him the ability to influence the government to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and assisted them persuade the group to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed influence with the Israeli government, and indirectly with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. His ability to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and he appears to handle with some success."

The reality that Trump is far better liked in the nation than the prime minister himself was leverage that Trump used to his advantage, he adds.

Now Israel has agreed to freeing more than 1,000 detainees held in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from Gaza.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, captured in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

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