🔗 Share this article

Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar seemed like yet another escalation that drove the prospect of peace further away.

This strike on 9 September violated the territorial integrity of an US partner and threatened expanding the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

However, it turned out to be a pivotal event that has led in a agreement, announced by Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

That represents a objective that Trump, and Joe Biden previously, had sought for almost 24 months.

This marks just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be negotiated.

But if this deal stands, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that eluded Biden and his administration.

The president's distinct approach and key alliances with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have played a role in this breakthrough.

However, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also factors at play beyond the influence of either man.

Strong Ties Which Biden Never Had

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president often states that Israel has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has described Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by deeds.

During his initial time in office, the president moved the American diplomatic mission in the country from its former location to the contested capital and abandoned a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under global norms.

After Israel began its air strikes against Iran in the summer, Trump directed US bombers to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These public demonstrations of support may have given the president the leeway to apply more influence on Israel in private. As per sources, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israeli forces attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, even hitting a Christian church, Trump urged his counterpart to change course.

Trump displayed a degree of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, according to Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an US leader literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

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

Underneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took endangered fracturing his own political backing, whereas his successor's solid Republican base provided him more room to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the reality that, during his term, the Israeli government was not ready to reach an agreement.

Several months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip devastated, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Helped Secure Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a local national but no Hamas officials, led the president to issue an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president provided US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have informed media outlets that this was a turning point which motivated the leader to apply maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

The leader's strong connections with the Gulf states 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, he also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between Israel and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year helped shift his perspective, according to an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to the country on this Middle East trip but visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader received repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that attack on the city, Trump was present nearby as the prime minister himself phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming Trump's alliance with Netanyahu provided him the room to influence Israel to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and helped them persuade Hamas to agree to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that President Trump gained influence with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with Hamas," says an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that many earlier administrations have faced, and he seems to do relatively successfully."

The reality that the president is far better liked in Israel than the prime minister himself was an advantage that Trump employed to his benefit, the expert continues.

Now Israel has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

The group will free all the remaining hostages, living and dead, taken in the initial October 7 assault, which caused the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

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