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Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Qatar appeared like another intensification that drove the hope of a ceasefire out of reach.

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

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

Instead, it proved to be a key moment that culminated in a deal, announced by President Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

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

It is just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the details of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be worked out.

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

Trump's unique style and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Arab world appear to have played a role in this success.

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

Strong Ties Which Eluded Biden

In public, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president often states that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called him as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". And these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the position under international law.

After the Israeli military began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in June, the US leader directed American aircraft to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These public demonstrations of backing may have given the president the leeway to apply more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's negotiator, his representative, browbeat Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of some hostages.

After Israeli forces attacked against Syrian forces in July, even bombing a Christian church, the US president pressured his counterpart to change course.

The leader displayed a degree of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, says Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "There is no example of an US leader literally telling an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

Biden's connection with the Israeli administration was consistently more tenuous.

His administration's "bear hug approach" held that the United States had to support the nation publicly in order to enable it to moderate the country's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Each move the leader took risked dividing his own domestic support, while Trump's solid Republican base provided him more flexibility to act.

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had less importance than the simple fact that, throughout his term, Israel was unwilling to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic weakened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted Trump to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president provided US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. But an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have informed the press that this was a turning point which galvanised the leader to exert full force to get a peace deal done.

The leader's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has commercial interests with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, Trump also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

The time he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to the country on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where he heard consistent appeals to put a stop to the war.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump was present close as the prime minister personally phoned Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming the president's relationship with Netanyahu gave him the ability to pressure the government to strike a deal, his past with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and assisted them convince Hamas to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained influence with the Israeli government, and indirectly with the militants," says an analyst of the a research center.

"That made a difference. The capacity to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that many previous presidents have struggled with, and Trump seems to do with some success."

The fact that Trump is much more popular in Israel than the prime minister himself was leverage that he used to his benefit, he adds.

Now the Israeli government has committed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in its jails and has consented to a limited pullback from Gaza.

Hamas will release all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, taken during the initial October 7 assault, which resulted in the death of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has resulted in the destruction of the territory and the fatalities of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal