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At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar seemed like yet another escalation that pushed the prospect of a ceasefire further away.

The attack on September 9 violated the sovereignty of an American ally and risked widening the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.

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

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

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

But if this deal stands, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that eluded Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

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

But, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also elements involved beyond the influence of both leaders.

A Close Relationship 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 called him as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". And these warm words have been matched by actions.

Throughout his initial time in office, the president relocated the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under international law.

When Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in the summer, the US leader ordered American aircraft to target the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of support may have given the president the leeway to exert more influence on the Israeli government behind the scenes. According to reports, Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in the summer, including hitting a Christian church, the US president pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

Trump displayed a degree of determination and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" argued that the United States had to support the nation openly in order to enable it to moderate the nation's military actions behind closed doors.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took risked dividing his own domestic support, whereas Trump's solid Republican base provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel was not ready to make peace.

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

Business History Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led Trump to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. The war had to stop.

Trump had allowed Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. He provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, pushing him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have informed the press that this was a turning point which motivated the leader to apply full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has commercial interests with Qatar and the UAE. He began both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. This year, he also visited in Doha and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

His visits devoted in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months helped shift his perspective, says an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not visit Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where he heard repeated calls to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that attack on the city, the president was present nearby as the prime minister himself phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister signed off on Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming the president's alliance with Netanyahu provided him the room to influence Israel to strike a deal, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and assisted them convince Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that the US leader developed influence with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

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

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

Currently Israel has agreed to freeing more than 1,000 detainees held in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

The group will free all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has led to the destruction of Gaza and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal