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Initially, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Qatar seemed like another escalation that pushed the hope of a ceasefire out of reach.

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

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

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

That represents a goal that he, and President Joe Biden previously, had pursued for nearly two years.

It is just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout remain to be worked out.

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

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

However, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also elements at play beyond the control of either man.

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump often states that Israel has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has called him as the country's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these warm words have been backed up by actions.

During his initial time in office, the president relocated the US embassy in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are against international law, the view under global norms.

After Israel began its air strikes against Iran in the summer, Trump ordered American aircraft to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those public demonstrations of backing may have allowed Trump the leeway to apply more influence on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of some hostages.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in July, even bombing a place of worship, Trump pressured his counterpart to change course.

Trump exhibited a degree of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, says Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an American president directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

Biden's relationship with Netanyahu's government was always more strained.

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" held that the United States had to support the nation publicly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's war conduct in private.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step Biden took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, while his successor's loyal conservative voters gave him more room to manoeuvre.

In the end, domestic politics or individual ties may have had less importance than the reality that, during his term, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Commercial Background Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted the president to issue an ultimatum to Netanyahu. The war had to stop.

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. The president provided American military might to Israeli operations in Iran. But an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, moving him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have informed media outlets that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the president to apply maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

The leader's strong connections with the Gulf states are widely known. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also visited in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

His Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the biggest foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, says Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not visit Israel on this regional tour but went to the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where he heard repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on the city, the president was present nearby as the prime minister personally called the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval on the president's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming Trump's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the room to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their support, and helped them persuade Hamas to commit to the deal.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader gained leverage with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with Hamas," notes an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the combatants has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and Trump seems to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that the president is much more popular in the nation than the prime minister personally was leverage that Trump employed to his benefit, he adds.

Currently the Israeli government has committed to freeing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

The group will release all the captives still held, living and dead, taken in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which resulted in the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.

An end to the war, which has resulted in the destruction of Gaza and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal