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At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Qatar seemed like yet another intensification that pushed the hope of a ceasefire further away.

This strike on September 9 breached the sovereignty of an American ally and threatened widening the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

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

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

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

Yet if this deal holds, 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 key alliances with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have played a role in this breakthrough.

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

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

Publicly, Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

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". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by actions.

During his initial time in office, the president moved the American diplomatic mission in the country from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are against international law, the view under global norms.

After Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, Trump ordered American aircraft to strike the nation's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those visible shows of backing may have given Trump the room to exert more pressure on the Israeli government behind the scenes. According to reports, Trump's negotiator, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a temporary ceasefire in return for the release of a number of captives.

When Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, even hitting a place of worship, Trump urged his counterpart to change course.

Trump displayed a degree of will and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, 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 they must agree or else."

Joe Biden's relationship with Netanyahu's government was always more strained.

His administration's "bear hug strategy" held that the United States had to embrace Israel publicly in order to allow it to influence the country's military actions in private.

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of support for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move the leader took risked dividing his own domestic support, while Trump's solid Republican base provided him more room to manoeuvre.

In the end, domestic politics or individual ties may have had little impact than the reality that, during Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was unwilling 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 Gaza in ruins, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Business History Helped Secure Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which killed a local national but not the intended targets, led Trump to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in the territory. The president provided American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

A number of administration figures have informed the press that this was a decisive moment which motivated the leader to exert maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

The leader's close ties with the Gulf states are widely known. He has business dealings with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. The president began both his presidential terms with state visits to the kingdom. This year, Trump also stopped in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The president's normalization agreements, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months helped shift his perspective, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not visit the country on this regional tour but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where the leader heard repeated calls to bring an end to the conflict.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, the president was present nearby as Netanyahu personally called Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the area.

If Trump's alliance with Netanyahu provided him the room to influence the government to strike a deal, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and helped them convince the group to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader gained leverage with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that many earlier administrations have faced, and he appears to do relatively successfully."

The reality that the president is far better liked in the nation than the prime minister personally was an advantage that he employed to his advantage, he adds.

Now Israel has committed to releasing over a thousand detainees held in its jails and has consented to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, taken during the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the loss of more than 1,200 Israelis.

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