🔗 Share this article

Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Qatar appeared like yet another escalation that pushed the prospect of peace further away.

The attack on 9 September violated the sovereignty of an American ally and threatened widening the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.

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

That represents a goal that Trump, and Joe Biden previously, had sought for nearly two years.

This marks just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be negotiated.

Yet if this deal stands, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that eluded Biden and his administration.

The president's distinct approach and key alliances with Israel and the Arab world seem to have played a role in this success.

However, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also elements at play beyond the influence of either man.

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

In public, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president often states that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has described Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". And these warm words have been matched by actions.

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

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

These public demonstrations of support may have allowed the president the leeway to apply more influence on Israel in private. According to reports, Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in return for the release of some hostages.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syria's military in July, including hitting a place of worship, Trump urged Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader exhibited a degree of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an American president literally telling an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

Joe Biden's relationship with Netanyahu's government was consistently more tenuous.

His administration's "close embrace strategy" held that the US had to support Israel openly in order to enable it to influence the country's military actions in private.

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Every step the leader took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's loyal conservative voters gave him more flexibility to act.

In the end, domestic politics or individual ties may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel was not ready to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its immediate north significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Commercial Background Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which killed a local national but not the intended targets, prompted the president to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

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

A number of administration figures have informed the press that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the president to apply maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

The leader's close ties with the Gulf states are widely known. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to the kingdom. This year, he also visited in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months helped shift his perspective, says an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not visit the country on this regional tour but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader received consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump sat close as the prime minister himself called Qatar to express regret. And later that day, the Israeli leader gave approval on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming Trump's relationship with Netanyahu gave him the ability to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have secured their support, and assisted them persuade Hamas to agree to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that the US leader developed leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," says an analyst of the a research center.

"That made a difference. The capacity to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the combatants has been a problem that many earlier administrations have faced, and Trump appears to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that the president is much more popular in the nation than the prime minister personally was leverage that Trump employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Currently the Israeli government has committed to releasing over a thousand Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

The group will free all the captives still held, living and dead, taken in the initial October 7 assault, which caused the loss of more than 1,200 Israelis.

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