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Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha seemed like another escalation that pushed the prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

This strike on September 9 breached the sovereignty of an US partner and threatened widening the conflict into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.

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

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

It is just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be negotiated.

Yet if this agreement holds, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that escaped Joe Biden and his administration.

The president's distinct approach and key alliances with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have contributed in this success.

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

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

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

Trump often states that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called Trump as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". Moreover these warm words have been matched by actions.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump relocated the American diplomatic mission in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under global norms.

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

These public demonstrations of backing may have allowed the president the leeway to apply more influence on Israel in private. As per sources, Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, browbeat Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of some hostages.

When Israel attacked against Syria's military in the summer, including hitting a Christian church, Trump urged his counterpart to alter tactics.

Trump displayed a degree of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, according to Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an American president literally telling an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

The Biden team's "close embrace approach" argued that the United States had to embrace Israel openly in order to enable it to influence the nation's war conduct in private.

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

Ultimately, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had little impact than the simple fact that, during Biden's presidency, Israel was not ready to make peace.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its northern border greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Commercial Background Helped Secure Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a local national but no Hamas officials, led the president to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to stop.

Trump had allowed Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. He lent US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, moving him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

Several Trump officials have told the press that this was a turning point which motivated the president to exert maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

This US president's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are widely known. He has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. This year, Trump also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and several Muslim states, such as the Emirates, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months contributed to change his thinking, says Ed Husain of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where he received repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, Trump sat nearby as Netanyahu personally called the Qatari leadership to express regret. Subsequently, the prime minister gave approval on the president's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that additionally had the backing of key Muslim nations in the region.

If the president's relationship with his counterpart provided him the room to influence the government to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have secured their support, and helped them convince the group to commit to the arrangement.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that President Trump gained influence with the Israeli government, and indirectly with the militants," notes Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. The capacity to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and he appears to handle with some success."

The fact that Trump is far better liked in the nation than Netanyahu personally was leverage that Trump used to his benefit, the expert continues.

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

The group will free all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken during the original 7 October Hamas attack, which resulted in the loss of more than 1,200 Israelis.

An end to the conflict, which has led to the destruction of the territory and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal