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Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha appeared like yet another intensification that drove the prospect of peace out of reach.

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

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

Instead, it proved to be a pivotal event that culminated in a agreement, announced by President Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

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

It is just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the details of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout remain 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.

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

However, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also elements at play beyond the influence of either man.

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

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

Trump often states that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". And these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

During his first presidential term, the president relocated the US embassy in Israel from its former location to the contested capital and discarded a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under global norms.

When the Israeli military began its air strikes against Iran in June, the US leader directed US bombers to target 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 pressure on the Israeli government behind the scenes. According to reports, the president's envoy, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the freeing of some hostages.

After Israel attacked against Syrian forces in July, including bombing a place of worship, Trump urged Netanyahu to change course.

The leader displayed a level of will and insistence on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an US leader literally telling an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" argued that the United States had to embrace Israel openly in order to allow it to moderate the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step Biden took risked fracturing his own domestic support, whereas Trump's solid Republican base gave him more flexibility to act.

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had less importance than the simple fact that, during Biden's presidency, Israel was unwilling to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic weakened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and the coastal strip devastated, every one of its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Commercial Background Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, led the president to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to stop.

Trump had given Israel a significant latitude in the territory. The president provided American military might to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an attack on Qatar soil was a separate issue completely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

A number of Trump officials have informed the press that this was a decisive moment which motivated the leader to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

The leader's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are widely known. He has commercial interests with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. He began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. This year, Trump also visited in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

His Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including the UAE, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

The time he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to change his thinking, says Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader heard consistent appeals to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, the president sat close as the prime minister personally called Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader gave approval on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming Trump's relationship with Netanyahu gave him the room to influence Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and assisted them persuade Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to achieve this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that many previous presidents have struggled with, and he seems to do relatively successfully."

The fact that the president is much more popular in the nation than Netanyahu personally was an advantage that Trump used to his benefit, the expert continues.

Currently the Israeli government has committed to releasing over a thousand Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

The group will free all the captives still held, living and dead, captured during the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which caused the death of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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