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Initially, Israel's air strike on the Hamas negotiating team in Qatar seemed like yet another intensification that drove the prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

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

Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.

Instead, it proved to be a pivotal event that culminated in a agreement, announced by Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

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

This marks just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout are still to be worked out.

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

The president's distinct approach and key alliances with Israel and the Arab world appear to have played a role in this breakthrough.

However, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also elements at play beyond the control of both leaders.

A Close Relationship That Biden Never Had

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

Trump often states that Israel has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". And these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, the president moved the American diplomatic mission 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.

After Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in the summer, Trump directed US bombers to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These public demonstrations of backing may have allowed Trump the room to exert more influence on Israel in private. According to reports, Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in late 2024 into agreeing to a halt in fighting in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, even bombing a Christian church, the US president pressured Netanyahu to change course.

The leader displayed a degree of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, says an analyst of the a think tank. "There is no example of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

Joe Biden's relationship with the Israeli administration was always more tenuous.

His administration's "bear hug approach" held that the United States had to support Israel publicly in order to enable it to moderate the nation's military actions in private.

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took risked fracturing his own political backing, whereas his successor's loyal conservative voters gave him more room to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, during his term, Israel was not ready to reach an agreement.

Several months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced and the coastal strip devastated, every one of 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 local national but no Hamas officials, prompted the president to issue an ultimatum to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. He provided US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an attack on Qatar soil was a separate issue completely, moving him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

Several administration figures have told the press that this was a turning point which galvanised the president to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's close ties with the Gulf states are widely known. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. He began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between Israel and a number of Arab nations, including the UAE, was the biggest foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to change his thinking, says Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not visit Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, the kingdom and the state where the leader received consistent appeals to put a stop to the war.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump was present nearby as Netanyahu personally called Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

If the president's alliance with his counterpart gave him the ability to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their support, and helped them persuade Hamas to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained influence with the Israeli government, and indirectly with the militants," notes an analyst of the a research center.

"That made a difference. His ability to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the combatants has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and Trump appears to do with some success."

The fact that Trump is far better liked in the nation than the prime minister personally was an advantage that he used to his benefit, the expert continues.

Currently Israel has committed to releasing over a thousand detainees held in its jails and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

The group will free all the remaining hostages, living and dead, taken in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the loss of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

An end to the war, which has resulted in the destruction of Gaza and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal