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At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha appeared like another escalation that pushed the prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

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

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

Instead, it turned out to be a key moment that has led in a deal, announced by President Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

That represents a objective that he, and Joe Biden before him, had sought for nearly two years.

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

Yet if this agreement stands, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his second term - one that eluded Joe Biden and his administration.

The president's distinct approach and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this success.

But, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also elements at play beyond the influence of either man.

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

Publicly, Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president often states that the nation has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has called Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the White House". And these positive statements have been backed up by actions.

During his first presidential term, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and abandoned a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are against international law, the position under global norms.

After the Israeli military began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in the summer, Trump directed American aircraft to target the nation's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those visible shows of backing may have allowed the president the room to apply more influence on Israel behind the scenes. According to reports, the president's negotiator, his representative, pressured the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israel attacked against Syria's military in the summer, even bombing a Christian church, the US president urged Netanyahu to change course.

Trump exhibited a degree of determination and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, says Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "There is no example of an American president directly instructing an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "bear hug approach" held that the US had to support the nation openly in order to enable it to influence the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Beneath this was the president's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took endangered dividing his own political backing, while 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 reality that, during his term, the Israeli government was not ready to make peace.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic weakened, the militant group to its northern border greatly diminished and Gaza in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but no Hamas officials, led the president to deliver an final demand to Netanyahu. The war had to end.

Trump had given the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. He provided American military might to Israeli operations in Iran. However an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, moving him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

Several Trump officials have told the press that this was a decisive moment which motivated the president to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's close ties with the Gulf states are well documented. He has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. He began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump also stopped in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

The president's Abraham Accords, which established ties between Israel and several Muslim states, including the Emirates, was the biggest foreign policy success of his first term.

The time he spent in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to change his thinking, says an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to the country on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where the leader heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, Trump was present nearby as Netanyahu himself phoned Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

If the president's alliance with his counterpart provided him the ability to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have secured their support, and assisted them convince the group to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that the US leader developed leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," notes Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"This was crucial. His ability to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and he seems to do relatively successfully."

The reality that Trump is much more popular in the nation than Netanyahu himself was an advantage that Trump used to his benefit, he adds.

Currently Israel has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees imprisoned in its jails 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 caused the loss of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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