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Initially, Israel's air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar seemed like another escalation that pushed the hope of a ceasefire further away.

This strike on 9 September violated the sovereignty of an US partner and threatened widening the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

However, it turned out to be a pivotal event that culminated in a agreement, announced by President Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

That represents a objective that he, and President Joe Biden previously, had pursued for almost 24 months.

It is just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be negotiated.

But if this deal stands, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that eluded Biden and his administration.

Trump's distinct approach and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Arab world seem to have played a role in this success.

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

Strong Ties Which Eluded Biden

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

The president likes to say that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called him as Israel's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by actions.

Throughout his initial time in office, the president moved the American diplomatic mission in the country from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are against international law, the position under international law.

When Israel began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in the summer, Trump ordered US bombers to target the nation's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those public demonstrations of backing may have given Trump the room to apply more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. According to reports, the president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of a number of captives.

After Israel attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, including bombing a Christian church, the US president pressured his counterpart to change course.

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

Joe Biden's relationship with Netanyahu's government was consistently more tenuous.

The Biden team's "close embrace approach" argued that the US had to embrace the nation openly in order to enable it to moderate the nation's military actions behind closed doors.

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of backing for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the Gaza War. Each move the leader took endangered dividing his own political backing, whereas his successor's solid Republican base provided him more room to act.

Ultimately, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the reality that, throughout his term, the Israeli government was not ready to make peace.

Several months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic weakened, Hezbollah to its northern border greatly diminished and Gaza in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Commercial Background Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

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

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. But an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several Trump officials have told media outlets that this was a turning point which motivated the president to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has commercial interests with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to the kingdom. Recently, he also stopped in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

The president's normalization agreements, which established ties between Israel and several Muslim states, such as the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

The time he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to change his thinking, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not visit the country on this regional tour but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader received repeated calls to bring an end to the war.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump was present nearby as the prime minister himself called Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming the president's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the room to influence the government to strike a deal, his past with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and assisted them persuade the group to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israeli government, and indirectly with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"That made a difference. The capacity to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that many previous presidents have faced, and he seems to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that the president is far better liked in Israel than Netanyahu himself was leverage that he employed to his advantage, he adds.

Now Israel has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees held in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will free all the remaining hostages, living and dead, captured during the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the loss of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has resulted in the devastation of the territory and the fatalities of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal