How Donald Trump Secured a Gaza Strip Breakthrough Which Escaped Biden

At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Qatar seemed like yet another escalation that pushed the prospect of peace further away.

The attack on 9 September violated the territorial integrity of an American ally and threatened widening the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy appeared to be in ruins.

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

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

This marks just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout are still to be negotiated.

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

Trump's distinct approach and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have contributed in this breakthrough.

But, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also factors involved beyond the influence of either man.

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

Publicly, Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president likes to say that the nation has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has called him as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". And these positive statements have been backed up by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are against international law, the position under international law.

When the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in the summer, the US leader directed US bombers to strike the nation's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those public demonstrations of support may have given Trump the leeway to exert more influence on Israel behind the scenes. According to reports, Trump's envoy, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in return for the freeing of some hostages.

After Israeli forces attacked against Syrian forces in July, even hitting a Christian church, the US president urged his counterpart to change course.

The leader displayed a level of determination and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, according to an analyst of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an US leader literally telling an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

Joe Biden's connection with the Israeli administration was consistently more strained.

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

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Each move the leader took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, while Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the reality that, during Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its immediate north significantly reduced and the coastal strip in ruins, all its key military goals had been achieved.

Commercial Background Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a local national but not the intended targets, prompted Trump to issue an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. However an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations 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 apply maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

The leader's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began each of his administrations with state visits to the kingdom. This year, Trump also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which normalised relations between Israel and several Muslim states, including the Emirates, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months helped change his thinking, according to Ed Husain of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where he heard repeated calls to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump sat close as Netanyahu personally phoned the Qatari leadership to express regret. And later that day, the Israeli leader gave approval on the president's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the region.

If Trump's relationship with Netanyahu provided him the ability to influence the government to strike a deal, his past with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and helped them convince the group to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained leverage with the Israeli government, and indirectly with Hamas," notes an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to achieve this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the demands of the warring sides has been a problem that many earlier administrations have struggled with, and Trump seems to do relatively successfully."

The fact that the president is much more popular in Israel than Netanyahu himself was leverage that Trump employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Currently the Israeli government has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees held in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, taken in the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the loss of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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