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Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar seemed like another escalation that drove the prospect of peace out of reach.

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

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

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

This is a goal that Trump, and Joe Biden previously, had pursued for almost 24 months.

It is just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the details of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be worked out.

Yet if this agreement stands, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that escaped Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

The president's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have contributed in this success.

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

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

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

The president likes to say that the nation has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as Israel's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by actions.

During his first presidential term, Trump relocated the US embassy in the country from its former location to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the position under international law.

When the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, the US leader ordered American aircraft to target the Iran's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These public demonstrations of support may have allowed the president the room to exert more pressure on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in July, even hitting a Christian church, Trump pressured his counterpart to alter tactics.

Trump displayed a level of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst of the a think tank. "There is no example of an American president literally telling an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

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

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of support for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took risked fracturing his own political backing, whereas his successor's solid Republican base provided him more room to act.

In the end, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had little impact than the simple fact that, during his term, the Israeli government was not ready to reach an agreement.

Several months into Trump's second term, with Iran chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip devastated, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Business History Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted Trump to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to end.

Trump had allowed Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. He provided US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. However an strike on Qatari territory was a separate issue entirely, moving him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have told the press that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the leader to exert full force to get a peace deal done.

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to the kingdom. Recently, Trump also stopped in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

The president's Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits devoted in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to change his thinking, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the state where he heard repeated calls to bring an end to the war.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, the president sat nearby as the prime minister himself called Qatar to express regret. And later that day, the prime minister signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming the president's alliance with his counterpart gave him the room to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and assisted them persuade Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," says an analyst of the a research center.

"This was crucial. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the combatants has been a challenge that many earlier administrations have faced, and Trump seems to do relatively successfully."

The reality that Trump is far better liked in Israel than the prime minister personally was an advantage that Trump used to his advantage, he adds.

Now Israel has committed to freeing over a thousand Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

The group will release all the captives still held, living and dead, captured during the initial October 7 assault, which caused the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

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