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Initially, Israel's aerial attack 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 September 9 breached the sovereignty of an American ally and threatened widening the conflict into a region-wide war.

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

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

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

This marks just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be negotiated.

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

The president's distinct approach and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have contributed in this success.

But, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also factors at play beyond the influence of either man.

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

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

The president often states that the nation has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called Trump as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by deeds.

During his first presidential term, Trump moved the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the position under international law.

After the Israeli military began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in the summer, the US leader ordered US bombers to target the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of backing may have allowed Trump the leeway to apply more influence on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of some hostages.

After Israel attacked against Syrian forces in July, including hitting a place of worship, Trump pressured his counterpart to change course.

The leader exhibited a degree of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, says Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president literally telling an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "bear hug approach" argued that the US had to embrace the nation publicly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's war conduct behind closed doors.

Beneath this was the president's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Each move the leader took risked dividing his own political backing, while his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more room to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or personal relationships 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 the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip devastated, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Business History Helped Gain Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted the president to issue an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had allowed Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. The president lent American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, pushing him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have informed media outlets that this was a turning point which motivated the leader to exert full force to get a peace deal done.

The leader's close ties with the Arab monarchies are widely known. He has commercial interests with Qatar and the UAE. He began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he 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 biggest foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where he received consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, the president was present close as Netanyahu himself called Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the support of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming Trump's alliance with his counterpart gave him the room to influence the government to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and helped them persuade Hamas to commit to the deal.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader gained leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"That made a difference. The capacity to achieve this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the desires of the combatants has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and he seems to do relatively successfully."

The fact that the president is much more popular in Israel than the prime minister himself was an advantage that he employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Currently the Israeli government has agreed to freeing more than 1,000 Palestinians held in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from Gaza.

The group will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, captured during the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the war, which has led to the devastation of the territory and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal