🔗 Share this article

Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar seemed like yet another intensification that drove the hope of peace further away.

The attack on 9 September breached the territorial integrity of an US partner and threatened widening the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

However, it turned out to be a key moment that culminated in a deal, announced by Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

That represents 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 details of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout remain to be negotiated.

But if this deal stands, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that escaped Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

The president's distinct approach and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Arab world seem to have played a role in this breakthrough.

But, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also elements involved beyond the control of both leaders.

A Close Relationship That Biden Never Had

In public, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president likes to say that Israel has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described him as the country's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by actions.

Throughout his initial time in office, the president relocated the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the position under global norms.

When Israel began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in the summer, the US leader directed US bombers to strike the nation's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of support may have allowed the president the leeway to exert more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a halt in fighting in return for the release of some hostages.

When Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in July, including hitting a place of worship, Trump urged Netanyahu to change course.

The leader displayed a degree of will and insistence on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, says an analyst of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

Joe Biden's connection with Netanyahu's government was consistently more strained.

The Biden team's "close embrace approach" argued that the United States had to support Israel publicly in order to allow it to influence the nation's military actions in private.

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move the leader took risked dividing his own political backing, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters gave him more room to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, during his term, Israel was unwilling to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic weakened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and the coastal strip in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, led the president to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. The war had to stop.

Trump had given the Israeli military a significant latitude in the territory. He provided US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, moving him towards the Arab position on how best to end the war.

A number of Trump officials have told media outlets that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the president to exert maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

This US president's strong connections with the Gulf states are widely known. Trump has commercial interests with the emirate and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including the Emirates, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, says Ed Husain 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, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader heard consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, the president was present close as the prime minister personally called the Qatari leadership to express regret. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on the president'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 Netanyahu gave him the room to influence Israel to strike a deal, his past with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and assisted them convince the group to commit to the deal.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"This was crucial. The capacity to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that many previous presidents have struggled with, and Trump seems to handle with some success."

The fact that the president is far better liked in Israel than the prime minister himself was leverage that he employed to his benefit, he adds.

Now Israel has committed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, taken during the original 7 October Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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