🔗 Share this article

At first, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Doha seemed like another intensification that pushed the prospect of peace further away.

The attack on 9 September violated the territorial integrity of an US partner and risked expanding the conflict into a region-wide war.

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

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

That represents a goal that Trump, and President Joe Biden before him, had sought for almost 24 months.

This marks just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

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

Trump's unique style and crucial relationships with Israel and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this success.

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

Strong Ties Which Biden Never Had

In public, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president likes to say that the nation has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has called him as Israel's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

During his first presidential term, Trump relocated the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and abandoned a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are against international law, the view under international law.

After Israel began its air strikes against Iran in the summer, the US leader ordered American aircraft to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These public demonstrations of backing may have given Trump the leeway to apply more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. According to reports, Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into agreeing to a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of some hostages.

After Israel attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, including bombing a place of worship, Trump urged his counterpart to alter tactics.

Trump exhibited a level of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, says Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace approach" argued that the United States had to support the nation publicly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's military actions in private.

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of support for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took endangered dividing his own political backing, while Trump's solid Republican base provided him more flexibility to act.

In the end, internal considerations or individual ties may have had less importance than the simple fact that, during his term, Israel was not ready to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran weakened, the militant group to its northern border greatly diminished and Gaza in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president lent American military might to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

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

The leader's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has commercial interests with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to the kingdom. Recently, he also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

The president's Abraham Accords, which established ties between Israel and several Muslim states, such as the UAE, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

The time he spent in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year helped shift his perspective, says an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to Israel on this regional tour but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where the leader received repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump was present nearby as the prime minister himself called the Qatari leadership to express regret. And later that day, the prime minister signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the backing of key Muslim nations in the region.

If Trump's relationship with Netanyahu gave him the ability to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and helped them persuade the group to commit to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that the US leader developed leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," notes Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. The capacity to do this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that many previous presidents have faced, and Trump seems to handle with some success."

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

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

Hamas will free all the remaining hostages, living and dead, captured in the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

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