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Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas negotiating team in Qatar appeared like another intensification that pushed the prospect of peace out of reach.

This strike on 9 September breached the sovereignty of an US partner and risked expanding the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

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

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

This marks just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be negotiated.

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

Trump's unique style and crucial relationships 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 factors at play beyond the control of both leaders.

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president often states that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called him as the country's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these warm words have been backed up by actions.

During his initial time in office, Trump relocated the American diplomatic mission in the country from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under global norms.

After Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, the US leader directed American aircraft to target the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

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

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

Trump displayed a degree of determination and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

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

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of support for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took risked dividing his own political backing, while his successor's solid Republican base gave him more flexibility to act.

In the end, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the simple fact that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic weakened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and the coastal strip devastated, every one of its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led the president to issue an ultimatum to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to stop.

Trump had allowed Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. He lent US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. 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 informed media outlets that this was a turning point which motivated the president to exert maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are widely known. He has commercial interests with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began each of his administrations with official trips to the kingdom. This year, he also visited in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the biggest foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months helped change his thinking, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to Israel on this regional tour but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where he heard repeated calls to bring an end to the conflict.

Less than a month after that attack on the city, the president sat close as the prime minister personally called the Qatari leadership to express regret. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the area.

If the president's alliance with his counterpart gave him the ability to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and helped them convince Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. The capacity to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the demands of the combatants has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and he seems to handle with some success."

The reality that Trump is far better liked in Israel than the prime minister himself was an advantage that Trump used to his benefit, he adds.

Currently Israel has committed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians held in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, captured during the initial October 7 assault, which caused the loss of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

An end to the conflict, which has led to the devastation of Gaza and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal