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Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Qatar appeared like yet another intensification that pushed the prospect of peace out of reach.

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

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

Instead, it turned out to be a pivotal event that has led in a agreement, announced by President Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

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

This marks just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout are still to be negotiated.

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

Trump's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Arab world appear to have contributed in this success.

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

Strong Ties Which Eluded Biden

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

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

Throughout his initial time in office, the president relocated the American diplomatic mission in Israel from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the view under global norms.

When the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, the US leader directed US bombers to strike the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of backing may have allowed the president the leeway to exert more pressure on the Israeli government behind the scenes. As per sources, Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of a number of captives.

After Israeli forces attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, including hitting a Christian church, Trump pressured his counterpart to change course.

The leader displayed a degree of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, says Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

Biden's relationship with Netanyahu's government was always more tenuous.

His administration's "close embrace approach" argued that the United States had to embrace Israel openly in order to enable it to influence the nation's war conduct behind closed doors.

Underneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the Gaza War. Every step Biden took endangered dividing his own domestic support, while his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more room to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or individual ties may have had less importance than the simple fact that, throughout his term, the Israeli government was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran weakened, the militant group to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza in ruins, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Business History Assisted Secure Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which resulted in the death of a local national but not the intended targets, prompted the president to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to stop.

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president lent US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatari territory was a separate issue entirely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have told media outlets that this was a turning point which motivated the leader to exert maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

This US president's close ties with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. This year, Trump also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

The president's Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and several Muslim states, such as the UAE, was the biggest foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits he spent in the cities 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 visit the country on this regional tour but went to the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where the leader heard repeated calls to bring an end to the conflict.

Less than a month after that attack on the city, the president was present nearby as Netanyahu himself called Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader gave approval on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming Trump's alliance with Netanyahu provided him the room to influence the government to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and assisted them convince Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that the US leader developed influence with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," says an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his timing, and not succumb to the demands of the combatants has been a challenge that many previous presidents have faced, and he seems to handle relatively successfully."

The fact that the president is much more popular in Israel than Netanyahu himself was leverage that Trump employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Currently the Israeli government has agreed to freeing over a thousand detainees held in Israeli prisons and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will release all the captives still held, living and dead, taken in the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the loss of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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