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Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas negotiating team in Qatar seemed like yet another intensification that pushed the prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

This strike on September 9 breached the territorial integrity of an US partner and threatened widening the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy appeared to be in ruins.

However, it proved to be a key moment that has led in a deal, announced by Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

That represents a goal that Trump, 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 remain to be negotiated.

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

The president's unique style and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this breakthrough.

However, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also elements at play beyond the influence of both leaders.

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

Publicly, 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 the country's "most supportive friend in the White House". And these warm words have been backed up by actions.

Throughout his initial time in office, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under global norms.

When Israel began its air strikes against Iran in the summer, the US leader ordered American aircraft to target the nation's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those visible shows of backing may have allowed Trump the room to exert more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. According to reports, the president's negotiator, his representative, browbeat Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a halt in fighting in return for the release of some hostages.

When Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, including bombing a place of worship, Trump urged his counterpart to change course.

Trump displayed a level of will and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, says an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an American president directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

Joe Biden's connection with the Israeli administration was consistently more strained.

His administration's "close embrace strategy" held that the US had to support the nation publicly in order to allow it to moderate the country's military actions behind closed doors.

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took risked dividing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's solid Republican base gave him more room to act.

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had little impact than the simple fact that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel was unwilling to make peace.

Several months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced and the coastal strip in ruins, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Business History Assisted Secure Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, led Trump to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president lent American military might to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations 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 exert maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

The leader's close ties with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has commercial interests with the emirate and the UAE. He began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also visited in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

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

The time he spent in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months helped shift his perspective, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to the country on this Middle East trip but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where he heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on the city, the president was present close as the prime minister personally called the Qatari leadership to express regret. And later that day, the prime minister signed off on the president's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that additionally had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

If Trump's relationship with his counterpart provided him the ability to influence the government to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and helped them convince Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that President Trump gained influence with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," says an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability 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 seems to do with some success."

The reality that the president is far better liked in Israel than Netanyahu personally was an advantage that Trump used to his benefit, he adds.

Currently the Israeli government has committed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, taken in the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which caused the loss of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has led to the devastation of the territory and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal