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At first, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar seemed like yet another intensification that pushed the prospect of peace further away.

The attack on 9 September breached the territorial integrity of an US partner and risked expanding the conflict into a region-wide war.

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

However, it turned out to be a key moment that culminated in a agreement, declared by Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

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

This marks just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the details of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout are still to be worked out.

But if this deal holds, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that eluded Biden and his diplomatic team.

Trump's unique style and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have played a role in this breakthrough.

However, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also factors involved beyond the influence of both leaders.

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

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

The president likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has described Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". And these warm words have been matched by deeds.

During his first presidential term, Trump relocated the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to the contested capital and discarded a long-held US position that Israeli settlements 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 ordered American aircraft to target the nation's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

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

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, even hitting a place of worship, the US president urged Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader exhibited a degree of will and insistence on an Israel's leader 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 leader that they must agree or else."

Joe Biden's connection with the Israeli administration was always more tenuous.

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" argued that the United States had to embrace the nation openly in order to allow it to moderate the country's military actions behind closed doors.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took endangered fracturing his own political backing, 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 reality that, during Biden's presidency, Israel was not ready to reach an agreement.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic weakened, Hezbollah to its northern border 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

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a local national but not the intended targets, led the president to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. He lent US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, pushing him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have informed the press that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the president to exert maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are well documented. He has commercial interests with the emirate and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His normalization agreements, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, such as the Emirates, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

His visits devoted in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year helped shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the a policy institute. The US president did not visit Israel on this regional tour but went to the UAE, the kingdom and the state where the leader heard repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, Trump was present nearby as the prime minister himself called the Qatari leadership to express regret. Subsequently, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

If the president's relationship with Netanyahu gave him the room to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Muslim leaders may have secured their support, and assisted them persuade Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," notes an analyst of the a research center.

"That made a difference. The capacity to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have faced, and he seems to do with some success."

The fact that the president is far better liked in Israel than Netanyahu himself was leverage that he used to his advantage, the expert continues.

Currently Israel has committed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees 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 original 7 October Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has led to the destruction of the territory and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal