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At first, Israel's air strike on the Hamas delegation in Qatar seemed like another escalation that drove the hope of peace out of reach.

This strike on 9 September breached the sovereignty of an American ally and risked expanding the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy appeared to be in ruins.

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

That represents a goal that Trump, and Joe Biden before him, had pursued for almost 24 months.

It is just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the details of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

But if this deal holds, it could be Donald 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 contributed in this success.

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

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

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

Trump often states that the nation has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has described Trump as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". And these positive statements have been matched by actions.

Throughout his first presidential term, the president relocated the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the view under international law.

When the Israeli military began its air strikes against Iran in June, the US leader ordered US bombers to target the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These public demonstrations of backing may have allowed Trump the room to apply more influence on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, the president's envoy, his representative, browbeat Netanyahu in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of some hostages.

After Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in the summer, including bombing a place of worship, Trump urged Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader exhibited a degree 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 US leader literally telling an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

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

The Biden team's "bear hug approach" held that the United States had to support Israel publicly in order to enable it to moderate the country's military actions in private.

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took risked fracturing his own domestic support, while his successor's loyal conservative voters gave him more room to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had less importance than the simple fact that, during his term, Israel was not ready to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Secure Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a local national but no Hamas officials, led Trump to deliver an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had given Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. However an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, moving him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

A number of administration figures have informed media outlets that this was a decisive moment which motivated the leader to apply maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are well documented. He has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump also stopped in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

His Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and several Muslim states, including the Emirates, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months helped shift his perspective, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to Israel on this regional tour but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where the leader received repeated calls to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump sat nearby as the prime minister himself phoned the Qatari leadership to express regret. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

If the president's relationship with his counterpart gave him the ability to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and helped them convince Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israeli government, and indirectly with Hamas," says an analyst of the a research center.

"That made a difference. The capacity to do this on his timing, and not succumb to the desires of the combatants has been a challenge that many previous presidents have struggled with, and Trump seems to handle with some success."

The reality that the president is much more popular in Israel than Netanyahu personally was an advantage that he used to his benefit, he adds.

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

The group will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the loss of more than 1,200 Israelis.

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