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Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Qatar seemed like another intensification that drove the hope of a ceasefire out of reach.

The attack on 9 September breached the territorial integrity of an American ally and threatened widening the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.

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

That represents a goal that he, and President Joe Biden before him, had sought for almost 24 months.

It is just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout are still to be worked out.

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

Trump's distinct approach and crucial relationships with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have played a role in this success.

However, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also factors involved beyond the control of either man.

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president likes to say that the nation has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under global norms.

When Israel began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in the summer, the US leader directed American aircraft to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those public demonstrations of backing may have allowed Trump the leeway to apply more influence on Israel behind the scenes. According to reports, Trump's envoy, his representative, browbeat Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syria's military in the summer, even bombing a place of worship, the US president urged Netanyahu to change course.

The leader exhibited a degree of will and insistence on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, according to Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

Biden's connection with Netanyahu's government was consistently more tenuous.

His administration's "bear hug approach" argued that the United States had to embrace Israel openly in order to enable it to moderate the nation's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of support for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Each move the leader took risked fracturing his own political backing, while Trump's solid Republican base gave him more room to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had little impact than the reality that, during his term, Israel was not ready to make peace.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its immediate north significantly reduced and the coastal strip devastated, every one of its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Helped Secure Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which resulted in the death of a local national but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to issue an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had allowed Israel a significant latitude in the territory. He lent US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, pushing him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several Trump officials have told media outlets that this was a decisive moment which motivated 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. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between Israel and several Muslim states, such as the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to 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 went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where he received repeated calls to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month 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 gave approval on the president's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the area.

If the president's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the ability to pressure the government to reach an agreement, his past with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and assisted them convince the group to commit to the arrangement.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with the militants," 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 desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have faced, and Trump seems to handle relatively successfully."

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

Now the Israeli government has agreed to freeing over a thousand detainees held in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas will free all the remaining hostages, living and dead, captured during the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the loss of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

An end to the war, which has led to the devastation of Gaza and the fatalities of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal