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Initially, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha appeared like another intensification that pushed the hope of peace further away.

This strike on 9 September violated the sovereignty of an US partner and threatened widening the conflict into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

However, it proved to be a key moment that culminated in a deal, announced by Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

This is a goal that Trump, and Joe Biden before him, had sought for nearly two years.

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

Yet if this agreement holds, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his second term - one that eluded Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

The president's distinct approach and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have played a role in this breakthrough.

But, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also factors involved beyond the influence of either man.

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

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

The president often states that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described him as the country's "most supportive friend in the White House". And these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump relocated the American diplomatic mission in the country from its former location to the contested capital and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are against international law, the view under international law.

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

Those public demonstrations of support may have given Trump the leeway to exert more influence on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, Trump's envoy, his representative, pressured the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in return for the release of some hostages.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in July, even bombing a Christian church, the US president pressured his counterpart to alter tactics.

Trump displayed a degree of determination and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an American president literally telling an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

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

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" argued that the United States had to support Israel publicly in order to allow it to influence the nation's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of support for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's solid Republican base provided him more room to act.

In the end, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the simple fact that, throughout Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to make peace.

Several months into his new administration, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Business History Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, prompted the president to deliver an final demand to Netanyahu. The war had to stop.

Trump had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in the territory. He provided US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. But an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, pushing him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of Trump officials have told the press that this was a turning point which motivated the leader to exert full force to get a peace deal done.

This US president's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are widely known. He has commercial interests with the emirate and the UAE. He began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

His normalization agreements, which normalised relations between Israel and several Muslim states, including the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the state where the leader received repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, Trump sat close as Netanyahu himself phoned Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the support of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming the president's relationship with Netanyahu provided him the room to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their support, and helped them convince Hamas to commit to the deal.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained influence with the Israeli government, and indirectly with Hamas," notes Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"This was crucial. His ability to achieve 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 do with some success."

The fact that Trump is much more popular in Israel than Netanyahu personally was an advantage that Trump employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Now the Israeli government has agreed to freeing more than 1,000 detainees held in its jails and has consented to a limited pullback from Gaza.

The group will free all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken during the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the loss of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has resulted in the devastation of Gaza and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal