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Initially, Israel's air strike on the Hamas delegation in Qatar appeared like another intensification that drove the hope of peace further away.

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

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

However, it turned out to be a key moment that culminated in a agreement, declared by President Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

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

It is just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the details of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

Yet if this agreement stands, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that eluded Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

Trump's distinct approach and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have contributed in this breakthrough.

But, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also elements involved beyond the control of both leaders.

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

In public, Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump often states that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called him as the country's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by deeds.

During his first presidential term, Trump relocated the American diplomatic mission in the country from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the view under international law.

When the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, the US leader directed US bombers to target the nation's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of backing may have allowed Trump the leeway to apply more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the freeing of some hostages.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syria's military in the summer, including bombing a place of worship, the US president urged Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader displayed a degree of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, according to Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an American president directly instructing an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

His administration's "bear hug approach" argued that the US had to support Israel openly in order to allow it to influence the country's war conduct in private.

Beneath 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 risked dividing his own domestic support, while Trump's solid Republican base provided him more room to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or individual ties may have had less importance than the simple fact that, throughout his term, the Israeli government was not ready to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, all its key military goals had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, 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 stop.

Trump had given Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. He lent US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, pushing him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have told the press that this was a decisive moment which motivated the president to apply full force to get a peace deal done.

This US president's close ties with the Gulf states are widely known. He has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also visited in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, including the UAE, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to Israel on this regional tour but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump was present close as Netanyahu himself called Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming the president's relationship with his counterpart gave him the ability to pressure the government to strike a deal, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and assisted them persuade Hamas to agree to the deal.

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

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

The fact that Trump is much more popular in the nation than the prime minister himself was leverage that Trump used to his benefit, the expert continues.

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

Hamas will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, captured during 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 Gaza and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal