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At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Qatar appeared like another escalation that drove the hope of peace out of reach.

The attack on September 9 violated the territorial integrity of an American ally and threatened expanding the conflict into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.

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

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

This marks just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout remain to be worked out.

But if this deal holds, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that eluded Joe Biden and his administration.

The president's distinct approach and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have played a role in this success.

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

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

In public, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president often states that Israel has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as Israel's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

During his initial time in office, the president moved the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and discarded a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the view under global norms.

After the Israeli military began its air strikes against Iran in the summer, the US leader directed US bombers to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These public demonstrations of backing may have given Trump the leeway to exert more influence on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a halt in fighting in exchange for the freeing of some hostages.

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

The leader exhibited a level of will and insistence on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, according to an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an American president directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "bear hug approach" argued that the United States had to support the nation openly in order to allow it to influence the nation's war conduct in private.

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took endangered fracturing his own political backing, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to act.

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the simple fact that, during Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to make peace.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic weakened, the militant group to its immediate north significantly reduced and the coastal strip devastated, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in Doha, which resulted in the death of a local national but not the intended targets, led the president to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to end.

Trump had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. He lent American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have informed media outlets that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the president to apply full force to get a peace deal done.

The leader's close ties with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has business dealings with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, including the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the a policy institute. The US president did not visit Israel on this regional tour but visited the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where the leader heard consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump was present close as Netanyahu himself called the Qatari leadership to express regret. And later that day, the Israeli leader gave approval on Trump's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming Trump's relationship with Netanyahu provided him the room to influence the government to reach an agreement, his past with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and assisted them persuade the group to commit to the deal.

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

"This was crucial. The capacity to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the demands of the combatants has been a challenge that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and he appears to handle with some success."

The reality that Trump is far better liked in Israel than the prime minister personally was leverage that Trump used to his benefit, the expert continues.

Now Israel has committed to releasing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

The group will release all the captives still held, living and dead, taken during the original 7 October Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

An end to the war, which has led to the devastation of the territory and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal