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At first, Israel's air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Qatar appeared like another escalation that pushed the hope of a ceasefire further away.

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

Diplomacy appeared to be in ruins.

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

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

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

Yet if this agreement holds, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that escaped Biden and his administration.

Trump's unique style and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have contributed in this breakthrough.

However, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also factors at play beyond the control of either man.

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

Publicly, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has described him as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by actions.

During his initial time in office, the president relocated the American diplomatic mission in Israel from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and discarded a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the view under international law.

When Israel began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in the summer, Trump ordered American aircraft to strike the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These visible shows of backing may have allowed Trump the room to apply more influence on Israel in private. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the release of some hostages.

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

The leader exhibited a level of will and insistence on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst 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 "bear hug strategy" held that the US had to embrace the nation openly in order to enable it to moderate the country's military actions behind closed doors.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move the leader took risked fracturing his own political backing, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

In the end, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, during Biden's presidency, Israel was unwilling to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with Iran weakened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Commercial Background Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which resulted in the death of a local national but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to issue an ultimatum to Netanyahu. The war had to stop.

The US leader had allowed Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. The president lent US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. But an attack on Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

A number of Trump officials have informed the press that this was a decisive moment which motivated the president 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. He began each of his administrations with state visits to the kingdom. Recently, he also visited in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between Israel and several Muslim states, including the Emirates, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits devoted in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months helped change his thinking, says Ed Husain of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to the country on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where he received consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, Trump sat nearby as the prime minister himself called Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

If the president's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the room to pressure the government to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and helped them persuade Hamas to commit to the deal.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israeli government, and indirectly with Hamas," notes Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"That made a difference. His ability to do this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and Trump seems to do relatively successfully."

The reality that Trump is much more popular in Israel than Netanyahu personally was an advantage that Trump employed to his advantage, he adds.

Now the Israeli government has committed to releasing over a thousand Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured in the initial October 7 assault, which caused the loss of more than 1,200 Israelis.

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