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Initially, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas negotiating team in Qatar appeared like another escalation that drove the prospect of a ceasefire further away.

This strike on September 9 breached the territorial integrity of an US partner and threatened expanding the conflict into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy seemed to be collapsing.

However, it proved to be a pivotal event that has led in a agreement, announced by President Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

That represents a goal that he, and Joe Biden before him, had pursued for almost 24 months.

It is just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the details of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be worked out.

Yet if this agreement stands, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his second term - one that escaped Biden and his administration.

The president's unique style and crucial relationships 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 elements at play beyond the control of either man.

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

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

The president likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has described him as the country's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". And these warm words have been matched by actions.

Throughout his first presidential term, the president relocated the US embassy in the country from its former location to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the view under international law.

After Israel began its air strikes against Iran in June, the US leader directed American aircraft to strike the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of support may have given Trump the room to apply more pressure on the Israeli government behind the scenes. According to reports, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a temporary ceasefire in return for the release of some hostages.

After Israeli forces attacked against Syrian forces in July, even hitting a place of worship, Trump pressured Netanyahu to change course.

Trump exhibited a degree of determination and insistence on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, says Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an American president literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

Biden's relationship with Netanyahu's government was consistently more strained.

His administration's "bear hug strategy" held that the US had to embrace the nation openly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's war conduct behind closed doors.

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

In the end, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the reality that, throughout his term, Israel was not ready to reach an agreement.

Several months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its northern border greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Secure Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, led Trump to deliver an ultimatum to Netanyahu. The war had to stop.

Trump had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have informed media outlets that this was a turning point which galvanised the president to apply full force to get a peace deal done.

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are well documented. He has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. He began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also visited in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

His Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, such as the Emirates, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year helped change his thinking, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit Israel on this regional tour but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where he received consistent appeals to bring an end 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 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming Trump's alliance with his counterpart gave him the room to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and assisted them convince the group to commit to the arrangement.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed influence with the Israeli government, and indirectly with Hamas," says an analyst of the a research center.

"That made a difference. The capacity to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the combatants has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have faced, and he seems to handle relatively successfully."

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

Currently the Israeli government has committed to releasing over a thousand Palestinians imprisoned in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from Gaza.

Hamas will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, captured during the initial October 7 assault, which caused the death of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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