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Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Qatar appeared like another escalation that pushed the hope of a ceasefire further away.

This strike on 9 September violated the sovereignty of an American ally and risked widening the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy appeared to be in ruins.

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

This is a goal that Trump, and Joe Biden previously, had sought for nearly two years.

It is just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

But if this deal stands, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that eluded Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

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

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

Strong Ties Which Eluded Biden

In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump often states that Israel has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called him as the country's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". And these warm words have been matched by deeds.

During his first presidential term, the president moved the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and abandoned a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the view under international law.

When the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, Trump directed US bombers to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those public demonstrations of support may have given the president the leeway to exert more influence on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's negotiator, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in the summer, including bombing a Christian church, the US president urged Netanyahu to change course.

Trump displayed a degree of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

Joe Biden's relationship with the Israeli administration was always more strained.

His administration's "close embrace strategy" argued that the US had to support the nation openly in order to allow it to influence the nation's military actions in private.

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

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the simple fact that, throughout Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with Iran weakened, the militant group to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Assisted Secure Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in the territory. He provided American military might to Israeli operations in Iran. However an strike on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several Trump officials have informed the press that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the leader to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

The leader's close ties with the Arab monarchies are widely known. He has business dealings with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also stopped in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

The president's 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 initial presidency.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to change his thinking, says Ed Husain of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to Israel on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where he received consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump was present nearby as the prime minister himself called Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming the president's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the ability to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his past with Arab rulers may have ensured their support, and helped them convince the group to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with Hamas," notes an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that many previous presidents have struggled with, and he seems to handle with some success."

The reality that the president is far better liked in the nation than the prime minister personally was an advantage that he employed to his advantage, he adds.

Currently Israel has committed to freeing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken in the original 7 October assault, which caused the loss of more than 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