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Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar appeared like yet another escalation that drove the prospect of peace further away.

This strike on 9 September violated the territorial integrity of an US partner and risked expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

However, it turned out to be a pivotal event that has led in a agreement, declared by Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

This is a objective that Trump, and President Joe Biden previously, had sought for almost 24 months.

It is just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout remain to be negotiated.

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

The president's distinct approach and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have contributed in this success.

However, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also factors involved beyond the control of either man.

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

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

Trump often states that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described 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 relocated the American diplomatic mission in the country from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the position under international law.

When the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, the US leader directed American aircraft to strike the nation's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These public demonstrations of support may have given the president the leeway to apply more pressure on Israel in private. As per sources, the president's negotiator, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in return for the freeing of some hostages.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, including hitting a place of worship, the US president pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

Trump displayed a degree of will and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the a think tank. "There is no example of an American president literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

Biden's connection with Netanyahu's government was always more tenuous.

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

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the Gaza War. Every step Biden took endangered dividing his own political backing, while Trump's loyal conservative voters gave him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had less importance than the simple fact that, throughout his term, Israel was unwilling to make peace.

Several months into his new administration, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its immediate north significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led Trump to issue an final demand to Netanyahu. The war had to stop.

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president lent American military might to Israeli operations in Iran. However an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have told media outlets that this was a turning point which galvanised the leader to apply maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has commercial interests with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. He began each of his administrations with state visits to the kingdom. This year, Trump also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including the UAE, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

His visits devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not visit the country on this regional tour but went to the UAE, the kingdom and the state where the leader heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on the city, Trump was present close as the prime minister himself phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader gave approval on the president's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming Trump's relationship with Netanyahu gave him the room to influence the government to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and assisted them persuade Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israeli government, and indirectly with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to achieve this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and Trump appears to do with some success."

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

Now the Israeli government has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from Gaza.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured during the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the war, which has led to the destruction of Gaza and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal