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At first, Israel's air strike on the Hamas negotiating team in Qatar appeared like another escalation that drove the hope of a ceasefire further away.

The attack on September 9 violated the sovereignty of an American ally and threatened widening the conflict into a region-wide war.

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

Instead, it turned out to be a pivotal event that culminated in a agreement, declared by President Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

This is a goal that he, and Joe Biden before him, had sought for nearly two years.

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

But 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.

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

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

A Close Relationship That Biden Never Had

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president likes to say that the nation has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has called him as Israel's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". And these warm words have been matched by actions.

During his initial time in office, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in the country from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are against international law, the position under international law.

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

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

After Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, even bombing a Christian church, Trump pressured his counterpart to alter tactics.

The leader exhibited a level of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, says Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an US leader literally telling an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

Joe Biden's connection with Netanyahu's government was always more strained.

His administration's "bear hug approach" held that the United States had to support the nation publicly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's war conduct behind closed doors.

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of support for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took endangered fracturing his own political backing, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had less importance than the simple fact that, during Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to reach an agreement.

Several months into his new administration, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, all its key military goals had been achieved.

Commercial Background Helped Secure Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a local national but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to stop.

Trump had given Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president lent US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several Trump officials have informed the press that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the president to exert maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

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

His normalization agreements, which established ties between Israel and several Muslim states, including the UAE, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit the country on this regional tour but visited the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where the leader heard repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on the city, the president sat nearby as Netanyahu personally called the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, 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 area.

Assuming the president's relationship with Netanyahu provided him the ability to pressure the government to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and helped them persuade Hamas to commit to the deal.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed influence with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the demands of the combatants has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have faced, and he seems to handle with some success."

The reality that Trump is far better liked in Israel than Netanyahu personally was leverage that he used to his advantage, he adds.

Currently Israel has committed to freeing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, captured during the initial October 7 assault, which caused the death of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

An end to the war, which has resulted in the devastation of Gaza and the fatalities of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal