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Initially, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar appeared like yet another escalation that pushed the prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

The attack on September 9 breached the sovereignty of an American ally and risked expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.

Instead, it proved to be a key moment that has led in a deal, announced by President Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

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

It is just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout are still to be negotiated.

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

The president's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this breakthrough.

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

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

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

The president often states that Israel has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described him as Israel's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, the president moved the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the view under international law.

When Israel began its air strikes against Iran in June, Trump directed US bombers to target the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those visible shows of backing may have given the president the room to exert more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. According to reports, Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israel attacked against Syria's military in July, even bombing a Christian church, the US president urged his counterpart to change course.

Trump displayed a level of determination and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, says Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" held that the United States had to support the nation openly in order to enable it to moderate the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Beneath this was Biden's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took endangered fracturing his own political backing, while Trump's solid Republican base gave him more room to act.

Ultimately, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the simple fact that, throughout Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Several months into Trump's second term, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its immediate north significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, every one of its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which resulted in the death of a local national but not the intended targets, led Trump to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. The war had to end.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. He lent American military might to Israeli operations in Iran. But an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, moving him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have informed media outlets that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the leader to exert full force to get a peace deal done.

The leader's strong connections with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. This year, Trump also visited in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which established ties between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits devoted in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months helped shift his perspective, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where the leader received repeated calls to bring an end to the conflict.

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

Assuming the president's alliance with Netanyahu provided him the ability to influence Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and helped them persuade Hamas to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israeli government, and indirectly with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to do this on his timing, and not succumb to the desires of the combatants has been a challenge that many previous presidents have faced, and he seems to handle with some success."

The reality that the president is far better liked in Israel than Netanyahu himself was leverage that Trump used to his benefit, the expert continues.

Currently the Israeli government has agreed to freeing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken during the original 7 October assault, which caused the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

An end to the war, which has led to the devastation of Gaza and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal