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At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas negotiating team in Qatar appeared like another escalation that drove the prospect of peace further away.

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

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

Instead, it turned out to be a key moment that has led in a agreement, declared by Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

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

It is just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout remain to be negotiated.

But if this deal stands, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that escaped 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.

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

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

In public, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president often states that the nation has no better friend, and Netanyahu has described him as the country's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump relocated the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under global norms.

After the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, the US leader directed American aircraft to strike the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of backing may have given Trump the room to apply more influence on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israeli forces launched strikes against Syria's military in the summer, even hitting a Christian church, Trump pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

Trump exhibited a level 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. "It's unheard of of an US leader literally telling an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" argued that the US had to support the nation publicly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's military actions behind closed doors.

Underneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move the leader took endangered fracturing his own political backing, while his successor's loyal conservative voters gave him more room to manoeuvre.

In the end, domestic politics or individual ties may have had little impact than the reality that, during his term, the Israeli government was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which resulted in the death of a local national but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to deliver an ultimatum to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had allowed Israel a significant latitude in the territory. He lent American military might to Israel's campaign in Iran. However an strike on Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

A number of administration figures have informed the press that this was a decisive moment which motivated the president to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's strong connections with the Gulf states are widely known. Trump has business dealings with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. He began each of his administrations with state visits to the kingdom. Recently, he also stopped in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The president's Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, such as the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, says an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not visit the country on this regional tour but went to the UAE, the kingdom and the state where the leader heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, Trump sat close as Netanyahu personally called Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming Trump's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the room to influence Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have ensured their support, and helped them persuade the group to commit to the arrangement.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader gained leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," notes an analyst 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 lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and he appears to do with some success."

The fact that the president is much more popular in Israel than the prime minister personally was leverage that Trump employed to his benefit, he adds.

Now the Israeli government has agreed to releasing over a thousand detainees held in its jails and has consented to a limited pullback from Gaza.

Hamas will free all the remaining hostages, living and dead, captured during the original 7 October assault, which caused the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has resulted in the destruction of Gaza and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal