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At first, Israel's air strike on the Hamas delegation in Qatar appeared like yet another intensification that pushed the prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

The attack on September 9 breached the sovereignty of an American ally and risked expanding the conflict into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy appeared to be in ruins.

Instead, it proved to be a pivotal event that culminated in a deal, declared by Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

That represents a goal that he, and Joe Biden before him, had sought for almost 24 months.

This marks just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout are still to be worked out.

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

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 diplomatic achievements, there were also elements at play beyond the control of both leaders.

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

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

The president likes to say that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called Trump as Israel's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

Throughout his initial time in office, Trump relocated the American diplomatic mission in the country from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and discarded a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are against international law, the position under international law.

When the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in the summer, Trump directed US bombers to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These visible shows of support may have allowed Trump the room to exert more pressure on Israel in private. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in the summer, even hitting a Christian church, the US president pressured Netanyahu to change course.

The leader exhibited a degree of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, says an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

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

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of support for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the Gaza War. Every step Biden took endangered fracturing his own political backing, whereas Trump's solid Republican base provided him more room to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or individual ties may have had less importance than the simple fact that, throughout Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Several months into his new administration, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and the coastal strip devastated, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in Doha, which resulted in the death of a local national but not the intended targets, prompted Trump to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president lent US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an attack 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 media outlets that this was a turning point which motivated the leader to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's close ties with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began both his presidential terms with state visits to the kingdom. This year, he also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which established ties between Israel and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months helped shift his perspective, according to an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where he received consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on the city, the president sat close as Netanyahu himself phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

If the president's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the room to pressure the government to reach an agreement, his past with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and helped them persuade the group to commit to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained influence with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," says an analyst of the a research center.

"This was crucial. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the desires of the combatants has been a challenge that lot of earlier administrations have faced, and he seems to handle with some success."

The fact that Trump is much more popular in Israel than the prime minister personally was leverage that he used to his benefit, he adds.

Currently the Israeli government has committed to freeing more than 1,000 Palestinians held in its jails and has consented to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, captured in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the death of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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