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At first, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar appeared like another intensification that pushed the hope of a ceasefire further away.

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

Diplomacy appeared to be in ruins.

However, it proved to be a key moment that has led in a deal, announced by President Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

This is a goal that he, and Joe Biden previously, had sought for nearly two years.

It is just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

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

Trump's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Arab world appear to have played a role in this breakthrough.

But, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also elements at play beyond the influence of both leaders.

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump often states that Israel has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has called Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". And these warm words have been matched by actions.

During his first presidential term, the president relocated the US embassy in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and abandoned a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the position under global norms.

When the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in the summer, Trump ordered American aircraft to target the nation's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These public demonstrations of backing may have allowed Trump the leeway to apply more pressure on Israel in private. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of some hostages.

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

Trump exhibited a degree of will and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace approach" held that the United States had to support Israel openly in order to allow it to influence the nation's military actions behind closed doors.

Beneath this was Biden's decades-long of support for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step Biden took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's solid Republican base gave him more flexibility to act.

Ultimately, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the reality that, during Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to reach an agreement.

Several months into Trump's second term, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a local national but not the intended targets, prompted the president to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. He lent American military might to Israeli operations in Iran. But an strike on Qatari territory was a separate issue entirely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have told media outlets that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the leader to exert maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

The leader's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are well documented. He has commercial interests with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to the kingdom. Recently, he also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, such as the UAE, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, according to an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not visit Israel on this regional tour but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader received repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Within weeks after that attack on the city, Trump was present close as Netanyahu personally called Qatar to express regret. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

If Trump's relationship with his counterpart gave him the ability to influence Israel to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have secured their support, and helped them persuade the group to commit to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with the militants," says Jon Alterman 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 challenge that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and he seems to do with some success."

The reality that Trump is much more popular in Israel than Netanyahu himself was an advantage that Trump used to his advantage, he adds.

Currently Israel has agreed to freeing more than 1,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

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

A conclusion to the conflict, which has led to the devastation of the territory and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal