🔗 Share this article

Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Qatar appeared like yet another escalation that pushed the hope of a ceasefire further away.

This strike on 9 September violated the territorial integrity of an American ally and risked widening the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

However, it proved to be a key moment that has led in a agreement, announced by Donald Trump, to free 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 initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout are still to be worked out.

But if this agreement holds, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his second term - one that escaped Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

Trump's distinct approach and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Arab world appear to have contributed in this success.

But, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also factors at play beyond the control of both leaders.

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

Publicly, Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

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

Throughout his initial time in office, the president relocated the American diplomatic mission in the country from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the position under global norms.

When the Israeli military began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in the summer, the US leader ordered American aircraft to target the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those public demonstrations of backing may have allowed Trump the room to exert more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in the summer, including hitting a Christian church, Trump pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader exhibited a degree of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an American president directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

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

Beneath this was the president's nearly half-century of backing for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Each move the leader took risked dividing his own domestic support, while his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to act.

In the end, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had little impact than the reality that, throughout Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Commercial Background Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted the president to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had given Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. He lent US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatar soil was a separate issue completely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of Trump officials have informed media outlets that this was a turning point which galvanised the leader to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

The leader's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are well documented. He has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump also visited in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits devoted in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months helped change his thinking, says Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, the kingdom and the state where he received consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, the president sat close as the prime minister personally phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader gave approval on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming Trump's relationship with Netanyahu provided him the ability to influence Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and helped them persuade the group to commit to the deal.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that the US leader developed influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with Hamas," notes Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"That made a difference. The capacity to do this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem 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 Netanyahu himself was an advantage that he used to his benefit, the expert continues.

Now Israel has committed to freeing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in its jails and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured in the original 7 October assault, which caused the loss of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has resulted in the destruction of the territory and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal