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At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Doha appeared like yet another intensification that pushed the hope of a ceasefire further away.

The attack on September 9 breached the territorial integrity of an US partner and risked widening the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy seemed to be collapsing.

However, it turned out to be a key moment that has led in a agreement, announced by President Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

This is a goal that Trump, and President Joe Biden before him, had pursued for almost 24 months.

This marks just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout are still to be worked out.

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

Trump's distinct approach and crucial relationships with Israel and the Arab world appear to have contributed in this success.

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

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president often states that the nation has no better friend, and Netanyahu has described Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". And these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

During his first presidential term, the president relocated the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and abandoned a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under global norms.

After Israel began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in the summer, Trump ordered US bombers to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These public demonstrations of support may have given the president the room to exert more pressure on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, the president's envoy, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in return for the freeing of some hostages.

After Israeli forces launched strikes against Syria's military in the summer, including bombing a place of worship, the US president urged Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader displayed a degree of will and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, says Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an American president literally telling an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

Joe Biden's connection with the Israeli administration was always more strained.

His administration's "close embrace approach" held that the US had to support Israel publicly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of support for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took risked dividing his own domestic support, whereas Trump's solid Republican base gave him more room to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had little impact than the simple fact that, during Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to reach an agreement.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza devastated, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, prompted the president to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to end.

Trump had given Israel a significant latitude in the territory. The president lent American military might to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an attack on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

Several Trump officials have informed the press that this was a decisive moment which motivated the leader to exert full force to get a peace deal done.

The leader's strong connections with the Gulf states are widely known. He has commercial interests with the emirate and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

The president's Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the biggest foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, says an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to the country on this regional tour but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where he heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump was present close as Netanyahu personally called Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of key Muslim nations in the region.

If Trump's relationship with his counterpart gave him the ability to influence Israel to strike a deal, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and assisted them convince Hamas to commit to the deal.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," says an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the demands of the combatants has been a challenge that many earlier administrations have faced, and Trump appears to do relatively successfully."

The reality that Trump is far better liked in the nation than the prime minister personally was an advantage that Trump employed to his benefit, he adds.

Currently Israel has committed to freeing over a thousand detainees held in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

The group will release all the captives still held, living and dead, captured in the initial October 7 assault, which caused the loss of more than 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the war, which has led to the devastation of the territory and the fatalities of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal