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Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Qatar appeared like yet another intensification that drove the prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

This strike on September 9 violated the sovereignty of an American ally and risked widening 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 agreement, declared by Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

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

This marks just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout are still to be negotiated.

Yet if this deal stands, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that eluded Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

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

However, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also factors at play beyond the influence of either man.

A Close Relationship That Biden Never Had

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

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

During his initial time in office, Trump moved the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under global norms.

When Israel began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in the summer, the US leader directed US bombers to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of support may have given the president the room to exert more influence on Israel in private. As per sources, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, including hitting a Christian church, Trump pressured his counterpart to change course.

The leader displayed a level of will and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, says Aaron David Miller 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 connection with Netanyahu's government was always more strained.

The Biden team's "close embrace approach" held that the US had to embrace the nation publicly in order to enable it to moderate the country's military actions in private.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of support for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Every step the leader took risked fracturing his own political backing, whereas his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to act.

Ultimately, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had little impact than the simple fact that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel was not ready to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its immediate north significantly reduced and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Gain Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which killed a local national but not the intended targets, led the president to issue an ultimatum to Netanyahu. The war had to stop.

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. He provided American military might to Israeli operations in Iran. However an attack on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of Trump officials have told media outlets that this was a decisive moment which motivated the leader to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

The leader's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. He began each of his administrations with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, Trump also visited in Doha and the UAE capital.

The president's Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and several Muslim states, including the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

The time he spent in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year contributed to change his thinking, says an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to the country on this regional tour but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where he heard consistent appeals to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that attack on the city, Trump sat nearby as Netanyahu himself phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that also had the support of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming Trump's alliance with his counterpart provided him the room to influence the government to strike a deal, his past with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and assisted them persuade Hamas to commit to the deal.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with Hamas," notes an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. The capacity to achieve this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the demands of the warring sides has been a problem that many previous presidents have struggled with, and he appears to do relatively successfully."

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

Currently the Israeli government has committed to freeing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

The group will release all the captives still held, living and dead, taken in the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.

An end to the war, which has resulted in the destruction of the territory and the fatalities of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal