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Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Qatar appeared like yet another intensification that pushed the prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

This strike on September 9 breached the sovereignty of an American ally and risked expanding the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy appeared to be in ruins.

Instead, it proved to be a key moment that has led in a agreement, declared by President Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

That represents 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 details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

Yet if this deal stands, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that eluded Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

Trump's unique style and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have played a role in this breakthrough.

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

A Close Relationship That Biden Never Had

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

The president likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has described him as the country's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

Throughout his initial time in office, Trump relocated the American diplomatic mission in the country from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and discarded a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under global norms.

When Israel began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, the US leader ordered US bombers to target the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those public demonstrations of support may have allowed the president the room to apply more influence on the Israeli government behind the scenes. According to reports, Trump's envoy, his representative, browbeat Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of a number of captives.

When Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in the summer, including bombing a place of worship, Trump urged his counterpart to change course.

The leader exhibited a level of determination and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, according to Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

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

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took endangered dividing his own domestic support, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters gave him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

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

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Business History Helped Secure Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led the president to deliver an final demand to Netanyahu. The war had to end.

The US leader had allowed Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. The president lent US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatar soil was a separate issue completely, pushing him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have told the press that this was a decisive moment which motivated the president to apply full force to finalize an agreement.

The leader's strong connections with the Gulf states are well documented. He has commercial interests with the emirate and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. This year, he also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His normalization agreements, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year helped change his thinking, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to Israel on this regional tour but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where he heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump sat nearby as Netanyahu personally called Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that also had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

If Trump's relationship with his counterpart provided him the room to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and helped them persuade Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that the US leader developed influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," notes Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"This was crucial. His ability to do this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and he appears to handle with some success."

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

Currently the Israeli government has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees imprisoned in its jails and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

The group will release all the captives still held, living and dead, captured during the initial October 7 assault, which resulted in the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.

An end to the war, which has led to the destruction of the territory and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal