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At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Doha seemed like yet another intensification that pushed the prospect of peace out of reach.

The attack on 9 September breached the sovereignty of an US partner and risked expanding the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.

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

This is a objective that he, and President Joe Biden before him, had pursued for nearly two years.

It is just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the details of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout remain to be negotiated.

Yet if this deal holds, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that eluded Biden and his diplomatic team.

Trump's unique style and crucial relationships with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have contributed in this breakthrough.

However, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also factors at play beyond the influence of either man.

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president often states that the nation has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called him as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by actions.

During his initial time in office, Trump moved the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the position under international law.

After Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in the summer, the US leader directed US bombers to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those visible shows of support may have allowed the president the leeway to apply more pressure on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, the president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in return for the freeing of some hostages.

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

Trump exhibited a degree of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, according to an analyst of the a think tank. "There is no example of an American president directly instructing an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

Biden's relationship with the Israeli administration was consistently more tenuous.

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

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Each move the leader took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, while his successor's loyal conservative voters gave him more room to act.

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the simple fact that, throughout his term, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its northern border greatly diminished and the coastal strip devastated, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

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

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. He lent American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

Several administration figures have told media outlets that this was a turning point which motivated the president to exert maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

The leader's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has commercial interests with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, Trump also visited in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

His Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, such as the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months helped change his thinking, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where the leader received consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that attack on the city, Trump was present close as Netanyahu personally called the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming the president's relationship with Netanyahu provided him the ability to pressure the government to strike a deal, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and assisted them persuade Hamas to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," says an analyst of the a research center.

"That made a difference. His ability to achieve this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that many earlier administrations have struggled with, and Trump seems to do relatively successfully."

The reality that the president is far better liked in the nation than Netanyahu personally was leverage that Trump employed to his benefit, he adds.

Now Israel has agreed to releasing over a thousand detainees held in Israeli prisons and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured during the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the loss of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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