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Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Doha seemed like yet another escalation that drove the hope of a ceasefire further away.

This strike on September 9 breached the territorial integrity of an American ally and risked widening the conflict into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.

Instead, it turned out to be a pivotal event that culminated in a deal, declared by President Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

This is a objective that Trump, and Joe Biden previously, had pursued for almost 24 months.

This marks just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be worked out.

Yet if this agreement holds, it could be Donald 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 Israel and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this breakthrough.

But, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also factors involved beyond the influence of either man.

Strong Ties Which Eluded Biden

In public, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump often states 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 warm words have been matched by deeds.

During his initial time in office, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are against international law, the view under global norms.

After the Israeli military began its air strikes against Iran in the summer, the US leader ordered American aircraft to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those public demonstrations of backing may have given Trump the leeway to apply more pressure on the Israeli government behind the scenes. According to reports, Trump's negotiator, his representative, browbeat Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of some hostages.

After Israel attacked against Syrian forces in July, including hitting a Christian church, Trump pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader exhibited a level of determination and insistence on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, says 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 Netanyahu's government was always more strained.

His administration's "close embrace approach" held that the United States had to embrace Israel publicly in order to enable it to influence the nation's war conduct behind closed doors.

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of support for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took risked fracturing his own domestic support, while his successor's solid Republican base provided him more room to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the reality that, throughout his term, Israel was unwilling to make peace.

Several months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic weakened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and the coastal strip in ruins, all 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. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president lent US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, pushing him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

A number of administration figures have told the press that this was a decisive moment which motivated the leader to exert maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has commercial interests with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began both his presidential terms with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also visited in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

His normalization agreements, which established ties between Israel and several Muslim states, such as the Emirates, was the biggest foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year helped shift his perspective, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but visited the UAE, the kingdom and the state where he heard repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on the city, Trump was present close as the prime minister himself phoned 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 additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming Trump's relationship with his counterpart gave him the room to influence the government to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and assisted them persuade the group to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader gained influence with the Israelis, and indirectly with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"This was crucial. The capacity to achieve this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that many earlier administrations have faced, and Trump appears to handle with some success."

The fact that the president is far better liked in the nation than Netanyahu himself was an advantage that Trump used to his benefit, the expert continues.

Now Israel has committed to freeing more than 1,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

The group will free all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken in the initial October 7 assault, which resulted in the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has resulted in the destruction of the territory and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal