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At first, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas negotiating team in Qatar appeared like another escalation that pushed the prospect of peace out of reach.

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

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

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

This is a objective that Trump, and Joe Biden previously, had pursued for nearly two years.

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

Yet if this agreement holds, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that eluded Joe Biden and his administration.

The president's unique style and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have contributed in this success.

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

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

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

Trump often states that Israel has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has called him as Israel's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". And these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, the president relocated the American diplomatic mission in the country from its former location to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under global norms.

When the Israeli military began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in June, Trump ordered American aircraft to strike the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These public demonstrations of support may have allowed the president the leeway to apply more pressure on the Israeli government behind the scenes. According to reports, the president's negotiator, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of some hostages.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syria's military in the summer, including bombing a Christian church, the US president pressured his counterpart to change course.

Trump exhibited a level of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, according to an analyst 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 relationship with the Israeli administration was consistently more strained.

His administration's "bear hug approach" argued that the United States had to support Israel publicly in order to allow it to influence the nation's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of support for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the Gaza War. Every step Biden took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, while Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more room to act.

Ultimately, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had little impact than the reality that, during Biden's presidency, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with Iran chastened, Hezbollah to its northern border greatly diminished and Gaza in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led Trump to deliver an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president provided American military might to Israeli operations in Iran. However an strike on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several Trump officials have informed the press that this was a turning point which motivated the leader to exert full force to get a peace deal done.

The leader's close ties with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has commercial interests with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, Trump also stopped in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

His normalization agreements, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his first term.

The time he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, says an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not visit Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where he heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, the president sat close as the prime minister personally phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

If Trump's alliance with his counterpart provided him the ability to pressure the government to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and helped them persuade the group to commit to the deal.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump developed influence with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with Hamas," notes an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the desires of the combatants has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and Trump seems to do with some success."

The reality that Trump is much more popular in the nation than the prime minister personally was an advantage that Trump employed to his advantage, he adds.

Now Israel has agreed to freeing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from Gaza.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, taken during the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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