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At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas negotiating team in Qatar appeared like yet another escalation that drove the prospect of peace further away.

This strike on September 9 violated the territorial integrity of an US partner and risked widening the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy seemed to be collapsing.

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

This is a objective that Trump, and President Joe Biden previously, had sought for nearly two years.

This marks just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout remain to be worked out.

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

Trump's unique style and crucial relationships with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have contributed in this success.

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

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

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

The president often states that Israel has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has described Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the White House". And these warm words have been matched by actions.

Throughout his first presidential term, the president moved the US embassy in Israel from its former location to the contested capital and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are against international law, the position under international law.

After Israel began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, the US leader directed American aircraft to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of backing may have allowed Trump the room to apply more influence on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in return for the freeing of some hostages.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syria's military in July, even hitting a place of worship, Trump pressured his counterpart to alter tactics.

Trump exhibited a level of will and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace strategy" argued that the United States had to embrace Israel publicly in order to enable it to influence the country's military actions in private.

Underneath 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. Every step the leader took endangered dividing his own political backing, whereas his successor's solid Republican base gave him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

In the end, domestic politics or individual ties may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout his term, the Israeli government was not ready to reach an agreement.

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

Commercial Background Assisted Secure Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a local national but no Hamas officials, led the president to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. The war had to end.

Trump had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. He lent US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. However an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, moving him towards the Arab position on how best to end the war.

A number of Trump officials have told the press that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the leader to apply full force to get a peace deal done.

The leader's close ties with the Gulf states are widely known. He has business dealings with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. This year, Trump also stopped in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

The president's normalization agreements, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

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. Trump did not visit Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where the leader heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that attack on the city, Trump sat nearby as Netanyahu personally phoned the Qatari leadership to express regret. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on Trump's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that additionally had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming the president's relationship with Netanyahu gave him the room to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their support, and helped them convince Hamas to commit to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained influence with the Israelis, and indirectly with the militants," notes an analyst of the a research center.

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his timing, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that many earlier administrations have faced, and Trump appears to do relatively successfully."

The fact that the president is much more popular in the nation than the prime minister himself was an advantage that he used to his advantage, he adds.

Currently the Israeli government has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in its jails and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas will release all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, captured in the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has led to the devastation of Gaza and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal