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At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas negotiating team in Doha seemed like yet another escalation that drove the hope of peace out of reach.

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

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

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

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

This marks just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the details of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout are still to be worked out.

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

The president's distinct approach and key alliances with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have contributed in this success.

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

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

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

Trump often states that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". And these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

During his first presidential term, Trump relocated the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to the contested capital and abandoned a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under global norms.

When the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in the summer, the US leader ordered American aircraft to target the nation's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those public demonstrations of support may have allowed Trump the leeway to exert more pressure on the Israeli government behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's envoy, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of some hostages.

When Israel attacked against Syria's military in the summer, even bombing a place of worship, Trump pressured his counterpart to change course.

The leader exhibited a degree of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of 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 Netanyahu's government was always more strained.

The Biden team's "close embrace approach" argued that the US had to embrace Israel publicly in order to enable it to influence the country's war conduct in private.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took risked fracturing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's solid Republican base gave him more flexibility to act.

Ultimately, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had little impact than the simple fact that, throughout his term, Israel was unwilling to make peace.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Gain Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which killed a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to deliver an ultimatum to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had given Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. He provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatar soil was a separate issue completely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

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

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. Recently, Trump also stopped in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

The president's Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, such as the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits devoted in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year helped change his thinking, says Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit the country on this regional tour but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where he heard consistent appeals to put a stop to the war.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, the president was present nearby as the prime minister personally phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader gave approval on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming Trump's alliance with his counterpart provided him the ability to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his past with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and helped them persuade the group to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader gained influence with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with Hamas," notes Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"That made a difference. His ability to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and he appears to handle with some success."

The reality that the president is much more popular in Israel than the prime minister himself was an advantage that he used to his advantage, the expert continues.

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

Hamas will release all the captives still held, living and dead, captured during the initial October 7 assault, which caused the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

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