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At first, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Doha seemed like yet another escalation that drove the prospect of a ceasefire further away.

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

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

However, it proved to be a key moment that has led in a deal, declared by Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

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

This marks just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be negotiated.

Yet if this deal holds, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that eluded Joe Biden and his administration.

Trump's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have contributed in this breakthrough.

However, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also elements at play beyond the control of either man.

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

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

The president often states that the nation has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called him as the country's "most supportive friend in the White House". And these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

During his initial time in office, the president moved the US embassy in Israel from its former location to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under international law.

When the Israeli military began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in June, the US leader directed US bombers to strike the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those public demonstrations of backing may have allowed the president the leeway to exert more pressure on Israel in private. As per sources, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in the summer, including hitting a Christian church, the US president pressured his counterpart to alter tactics.

The leader displayed a level of will and insistence on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an US leader literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" held that the US had to embrace the nation openly in order to allow it to influence the country's military actions behind closed doors.

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Every step the leader took endangered fracturing his own political backing, while Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more room to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the reality that, during 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 Gaza in ruins, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which killed a local national but not the intended targets, led the president to deliver an final demand to Netanyahu. The war had to stop.

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. He lent US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, pushing him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

Several Trump officials have informed the press that this was a turning point which galvanised the president to exert maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's close ties with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began each of his administrations with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, Trump also visited in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

The president's normalization agreements, which established ties between Israel and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits devoted in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months helped shift his perspective, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. 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 the city, Trump sat close as the prime minister himself called the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

If Trump's relationship with Netanyahu gave him the room to influence the government to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their support, and helped them convince Hamas to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader developed influence 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 achieve this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the demands of the combatants has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have faced, and Trump seems to do with some success."

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

Currently the Israeli government has agreed to freeing more than 1,000 Palestinians held in its jails and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

The group will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, taken in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

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