The Way Donald Trump Secured a Gaza Strip Major Step That Eluded Joe Biden

Initially, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Doha appeared like yet another escalation that drove the prospect of a ceasefire further away.

This strike on 9 September breached the territorial integrity of an American ally and risked widening the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

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

This is a objective that Trump, and President Joe Biden before him, had sought for nearly two years.

This marks just the first step 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 deal stands, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his second term - one that escaped Biden and his administration.

Trump's distinct approach and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Arab world seem to have played a role in this success.

But, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also factors at play beyond the control of both leaders.

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 better friend, and Netanyahu has described Trump as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by deeds.

During his first presidential term, the president relocated the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the view under global norms.

When the Israeli military began its air strikes against Iran in June, Trump directed US bombers to strike the nation's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those visible shows of backing may have given Trump the room to apply more influence on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israel attacked against Syrian forces in July, even bombing a Christian church, Trump urged his counterpart to change course.

The leader displayed a degree of will and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, according to an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an American president literally telling an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

The Biden team's "close embrace approach" argued that the US had to support Israel publicly in order to enable it to moderate the country's military actions behind closed doors.

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took risked dividing his own domestic support, while his successor's solid Republican base gave him more room to act.

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

Several months into his new administration, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and the coastal strip in ruins, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, led the president to deliver an final demand to Netanyahu. The war had to stop.

Trump had given Israel a relatively free hand in the territory. He lent US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have told media outlets that this was a turning point which galvanised the president to exert full force to get a peace deal done.

The leader's close ties with the Gulf states are widely known. He has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also visited in Doha and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between Israel and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

The time he spent in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year helped change his thinking, says an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader received consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, Trump sat nearby as the prime minister himself phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that additionally had the support of influential Arab states in the area.

If Trump's relationship with his counterpart gave him the room to influence Israel to strike a deal, his past with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and assisted them convince the group to agree to the deal.

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

"That made a difference. The capacity to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have faced, and he appears to do with some success."

The fact that Trump is far better liked in the nation than Netanyahu himself was leverage that Trump used to his benefit, he adds.

Now Israel has committed to releasing over a thousand Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas will free all the captives still held, living and dead, captured in the original 7 October assault, which caused the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.

An end to the conflict, which has resulted in the devastation of the territory and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal