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Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas negotiating team in Doha appeared like yet another intensification that pushed the hope of peace further away.

The attack on 9 September violated the sovereignty of an US partner and risked widening the conflict 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 agreement, declared by President Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

This is a goal that he, and President Joe Biden before him, had sought for nearly two years.

It is just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout 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 diplomatic team.

Trump's distinct approach and crucial relationships with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have contributed in this breakthrough.

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

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump likes to say that Israel has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described him as Israel's "most supportive friend in the White House". And these positive statements have been matched by actions.

Throughout his first presidential term, the president moved the US embassy in Israel from its former location to the contested capital and abandoned a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under global norms.

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

Those public demonstrations of support may have given the president the room to apply more pressure on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, Trump's envoy, his representative, pressured the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of some hostages.

When Israel attacked against Syria's military in the summer, even bombing a Christian church, the US president urged Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader displayed a degree of will and insistence on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president directly instructing an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

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

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took endangered fracturing his own political backing, while his successor's solid Republican base provided him more room to act.

In the end, internal considerations or individual ties may have had less importance than the simple fact that, during his term, the Israeli government was not ready to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza in ruins, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Helped Secure Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but not the intended targets, led Trump to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to stop.

The US leader had given Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. The president provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatari territory was a separate issue entirely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have told the press that this was a turning point which galvanised the leader to apply maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

The leader's strong connections with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has commercial interests with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. He began each of his administrations with official trips to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump also visited in Doha and the UAE capital.

His normalization agreements, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

The time he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to change his thinking, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to the country on this regional tour but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where the leader received consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump sat close as the prime minister himself called Qatar to express regret. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming Trump's alliance with Netanyahu provided him the ability to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and helped them convince the group to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israeli government, and indirectly with Hamas," says an analyst of the a research center.

"That made a difference. The capacity to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and he seems to handle relatively successfully."

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

Currently the Israeli government has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees held in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

The group will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, captured during the original 7 October Hamas attack, which resulted in the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has resulted in the devastation of Gaza and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal