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At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas negotiating team in Qatar seemed like another escalation that drove the prospect of peace further away.

This strike on September 9 breached the territorial integrity of an American ally and threatened expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy appeared to be in ruins.

However, it proved to be a pivotal event that culminated in a agreement, declared by Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

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

This marks just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout remain to be worked out.

Yet if this deal stands, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that eluded Joe Biden and his administration.

The president's unique style and crucial relationships with Israel and the Arab world seem to have played a role in this success.

However, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also factors involved beyond the influence of both leaders.

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

In public, 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 Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by actions.

Throughout his first presidential term, the president moved the American diplomatic mission in the country from its former location to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are against international law, the position under international law.

When Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in the summer, Trump ordered US bombers to target the nation'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 in private. According to reports, the president's envoy, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israeli forces attacked against Syrian forces in July, including bombing a Christian church, the US president urged Netanyahu to alter tactics.

Trump displayed a degree of will and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the a think tank. "There is no example of an American president directly instructing an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

Biden's connection with Netanyahu's government was consistently more tenuous.

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" held that the United States had to embrace Israel publicly in order to allow it to influence the nation's war conduct behind closed doors.

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of support for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's solid Republican base provided him more flexibility to act.

In the end, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, during his term, the Israeli government was unwilling to make peace.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a local national but not the intended targets, prompted the president to issue an ultimatum to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. The president provided American military might to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

Several administration figures have informed media outlets that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the leader to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to the kingdom. Recently, Trump also visited in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

The president's normalization agreements, which established ties between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his first term.

The time he spent in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months helped shift his perspective, according to an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not visit Israel on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader received consistent appeals to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that attack on the city, Trump was present close as Netanyahu himself called Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

If Trump's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the ability to influence Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and helped them convince Hamas to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump developed influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to do this on his timing, and not succumb to the demands of the combatants has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have faced, and he seems to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that the president is far better liked in Israel than Netanyahu personally was an advantage that Trump employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Currently the Israeli government has agreed 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 remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured during the initial October 7 assault, which resulted in the loss of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

An end to the war, which has led to the devastation of Gaza and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal