🔗 Share this article

Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Doha appeared like another intensification that drove the hope of a ceasefire further away.

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

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

However, it turned out to be a key moment that has led in a agreement, declared by Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

This is a objective that Trump, and President Joe Biden before him, had sought for almost 24 months.

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

But if this agreement stands, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that eluded Biden and his administration.

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

But, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also elements at play beyond the influence of both leaders.

Strong Ties Which Eluded Biden

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

Trump likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". Moreover these warm words have been matched by actions.

During his first presidential term, the president relocated the US embassy in the country from its former location to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are against international law, the view under international law.

After the Israeli military began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in June, the US leader directed US bombers to target the nation's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of backing may have given Trump the leeway to apply more influence on Israel in private. According to reports, the president's negotiator, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israeli forces launched strikes against Syria's military in the summer, including hitting a place of worship, the US president pressured Netanyahu to change course.

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

Biden's connection with the Israeli administration was always more tenuous.

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

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took risked dividing his own political backing, while Trump's loyal conservative voters gave him more room to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the simple fact that, during his term, the Israeli government was unwilling to make peace.

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran weakened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and the coastal strip devastated, all its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Helped Gain Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to issue an final demand to Netanyahu. The war had to stop.

Trump had given the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. He provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have told media outlets that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the president to apply maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

The leader's close ties with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also stopped in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The president's Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including the UAE, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, says Ed Husain of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where the leader received repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, the president sat nearby as Netanyahu himself called Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the region.

If Trump's relationship with Netanyahu gave him the ability to influence the government to reach an agreement, his past with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and helped them convince the group to commit to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with Hamas," notes Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"That made a difference. His ability to do this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the demands of the combatants has been a challenge that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and he appears to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that the president is much more popular in the nation than Netanyahu himself was an advantage that Trump used to his advantage, he adds.

Now the Israeli government has agreed to releasing over a thousand detainees held in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from Gaza.

The group will free all the captives still held, living and dead, taken in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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