🔗 Share this article

At first, Israel's air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Qatar seemed like another intensification that pushed the hope of a ceasefire further away.

This strike on 9 September violated the sovereignty of an US partner and risked expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy appeared to be in ruins.

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

That represents a goal that he, and President Joe Biden previously, had pursued for nearly two years.

It is just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the details of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

Yet if this agreement holds, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that escaped Biden and his administration.

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

But, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also elements involved beyond the control of either man.

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

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

Trump often states that the nation has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has described him as the country's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". And these positive statements have been backed up by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, the president moved the American diplomatic mission in the country from its former location to the contested capital and discarded a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the position under international law.

After the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in the summer, Trump ordered US bombers to target the Iran's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those visible shows of backing may have allowed the president the leeway to exert more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. According to reports, Trump's negotiator, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of some hostages.

After Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in the summer, even hitting a place of worship, Trump pressured Netanyahu to change course.

The leader exhibited a level of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, 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."

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

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" held that the US had to embrace the nation openly in order to enable it to influence the nation's war conduct in private.

Beneath this was Biden's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step Biden took endangered dividing his own political backing, while his successor's solid Republican base gave him more flexibility to act.

Ultimately, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was unwilling to make peace.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic weakened, the militant group to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza devastated, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had given Israel a significant latitude in the territory. The president provided US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, moving him towards the Arab position on how best to end the war.

Several administration figures have informed media outlets that this was a turning point which galvanised the leader to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are widely known. He has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. Recently, Trump also visited in Doha and the UAE capital.

The president's Abraham Accords, which established ties between Israel and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the biggest foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to change his thinking, according to an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where he heard repeated calls to bring an end to the war.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on the city, the president sat close as the prime minister personally phoned the Qatari leadership to express regret. And later that day, the prime minister signed off on Trump's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming the president's alliance with his counterpart provided him the ability to influence the government to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their support, and assisted them persuade Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader developed influence with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his timing, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have faced, and he appears to handle with some success."

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

Currently Israel has agreed to freeing over a thousand Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will release all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, captured during the initial October 7 assault, which caused the death of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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