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Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Qatar appeared like yet another escalation that pushed the hope of a ceasefire out of reach.

The attack on 9 September breached the territorial integrity of an American ally and risked expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

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

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

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

But if this agreement stands, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that eluded Biden and his administration.

The president's unique style and crucial relationships with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have played a role in this breakthrough.

But, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also factors at play beyond the control of both leaders.

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump often states that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called Trump as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by actions.

During his first presidential term, the president relocated the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the view under global norms.

When the Israeli military began its air strikes against Iran in June, Trump directed American aircraft to strike the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those public demonstrations of backing may have given the president the room to apply more pressure on Israel in private. According to reports, Trump's envoy, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in the summer, even hitting a Christian church, the US president urged Netanyahu to alter tactics.

Trump exhibited a level of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, says Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "bear hug strategy" held that the US had to support the nation publicly in order to allow it to influence the nation's military actions behind closed doors.

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took endangered dividing his own domestic support, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more room to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the simple fact that, throughout his term, the Israeli government was unwilling to reach an agreement.

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

Business History Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which resulted in the death of a local national but not the intended targets, led the president to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. The war had to end.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a significant latitude in the territory. He provided American military might to Israeli operations in Iran. However an strike on Qatar soil was a separate issue completely, moving him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of Trump officials have told media outlets that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the leader to apply full force to get a peace deal done.

This US president's close ties with the Gulf states are well documented. He has business dealings with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. This year, he also visited in Doha and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

His visits devoted in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months helped shift his perspective, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where he heard repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, the president was present nearby as Netanyahu personally phoned Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming Trump's alliance with his counterpart gave him the ability to pressure the government to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their support, and assisted them convince Hamas to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that President Trump developed influence with the Israeli government, and indirectly with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"This was crucial. The capacity to achieve this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that many earlier administrations have faced, and Trump seems to handle with some success."

The fact that Trump is much more popular in the nation than the prime minister personally was an advantage that he used to his advantage, he adds.

Currently Israel has committed to freeing over a thousand Palestinians held in its jails and has consented to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, captured in the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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