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Initially, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas negotiating team in Qatar seemed like yet another intensification that pushed the prospect of peace further away.

This strike on 9 September breached the sovereignty of an US partner and risked widening the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy seemed to be collapsing.

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

This is a goal that Trump, and Joe Biden before him, had sought for almost 24 months.

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

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

Trump's unique style and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Arab world appear to have contributed in this breakthrough.

But, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also factors involved beyond the influence of both leaders.

Strong Ties Which Biden Never Had

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

Trump likes to say that the nation has no better friend, and Netanyahu has described him as the country's "most supportive friend in the White House". And these warm words have been backed up by actions.

Throughout his initial time in office, Trump relocated the American diplomatic mission in Israel from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and abandoned a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the view under global norms.

When Israel began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in June, the US leader directed US bombers to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of backing may have given the president the room to exert more influence on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a temporary ceasefire in return for the release of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, including bombing a Christian church, the US president urged his counterpart to change course.

The leader exhibited a degree of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

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

The Biden team's "bear hug approach" held that the United States had to support the nation openly in order to enable it to moderate the nation's military actions in private.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, while his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to act.

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had less importance than the simple fact that, during his term, Israel was unwilling to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Commercial Background Assisted Secure Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but not the intended targets, prompted Trump to deliver an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. The president provided American military might to Israeli operations in Iran. But an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to end the war.

A number of Trump officials have told media outlets that this was a turning point which motivated the president to apply maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

The leader's close ties with the Arab monarchies are widely known. He has commercial interests with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which established ties between Israel and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the biggest foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where he heard repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, the president sat close as Netanyahu himself phoned Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming Trump's relationship with Netanyahu gave him the room to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and assisted them persuade the group to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the combatants has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and Trump appears to do with some success."

The fact that Trump is much more popular in the nation than the prime minister himself was an advantage that he used to his benefit, he adds.

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

Hamas will free all the captives still held, living and dead, captured in the original 7 October assault, which caused the loss of more than 1,200 Israelis.

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