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At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Doha seemed like yet another intensification that pushed the prospect of peace further away.

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

Diplomacy appeared to be in ruins.

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

That represents a goal that Trump, and Joe Biden before him, had sought for almost 24 months.

This marks just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the details of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout remain to be worked out.

But if this agreement stands, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that escaped Biden and his diplomatic team.

Trump's distinct approach and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this breakthrough.

But, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also factors at play beyond the influence of both leaders.

Strong Ties Which Biden Never Had

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

Trump likes to say that Israel has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called him as the country's "most supportive friend in the White House". And these positive statements have been matched by actions.

Throughout his initial time in office, the president relocated the American diplomatic mission in the country from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the view under global norms.

When the Israeli military began its air strikes against Iran in the summer, the US leader directed US bombers to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These public demonstrations of support may have allowed Trump the leeway to apply more influence on Israel in private. As per sources, the president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a temporary ceasefire in return for the release of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, even hitting a Christian church, the US president urged Netanyahu to change course.

Trump displayed a level of determination and insistence on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst of the a think tank. "There is no example 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 always more tenuous.

The Biden team's "bear hug approach" held that the United States had to support Israel publicly in order to enable it to moderate the nation's military actions in private.

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of support for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took endangered fracturing his own political backing, while his successor's solid Republican base gave him more room to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had less importance than the simple fact that, throughout his term, Israel was unwilling to make peace.

Several months into his new administration, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its key military goals had been accomplished.

Business History Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a local national but not the intended targets, prompted Trump to deliver an final demand to Netanyahu. The war had to end.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. He provided American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, pushing him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several Trump officials have told media outlets that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the president to exert maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

The leader's close ties with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to the kingdom. This year, he also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between Israel and several Muslim states, including the UAE, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

The time he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not visit Israel on this regional tour but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where the leader received repeated calls to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump sat close as Netanyahu personally called the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the region.

If Trump's relationship with Netanyahu gave him the room to pressure the government to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and helped them convince the group to agree to the deal.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that the US leader developed influence with the Israelis, and indirectly with the militants," says an analyst of the a research center.

"That made a difference. The capacity to achieve this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the desires of the combatants has been a problem that many earlier administrations have faced, and he seems to do relatively successfully."

The fact that the president is much more popular in Israel than the prime minister himself was leverage that he employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Currently the Israeli government has committed to freeing more than 1,000 detainees held in its jails and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

The group will release all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, captured during the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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