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

At first, Israel's air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar seemed like yet another escalation that drove the prospect of peace out of reach.

This strike on September 9 breached the sovereignty of an American ally and risked widening the conflict into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.

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

This is a goal that Trump, and Joe Biden previously, had sought for almost 24 months.

It is just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout are still to be negotiated.

Yet if this deal holds, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that eluded Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

The president's unique style and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Arab world appear to have contributed in this breakthrough.

However, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also elements at play beyond the control of either man.

Strong Ties Which Eluded Biden

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump often states that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has described Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by deeds.

During his initial time in office, the president moved the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and abandoned a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are against international law, the view under international law.

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

Those public demonstrations of backing may have allowed the president the leeway to exert more pressure on Israel in private. As per sources, the president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the release of some hostages.

After Israel attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, even bombing a Christian church, the US president urged Netanyahu to alter tactics.

Trump exhibited a level of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, according to Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an American president literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" held that the US had to embrace the nation publicly in order to enable it to moderate the country's war conduct in private.

Beneath this was the president's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move the leader took endangered dividing his own political backing, whereas Trump's solid Republican base gave him more room to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, during his term, the Israeli government was not ready to make peace.

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

Business History Helped Gain Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a local national but no Hamas officials, led Trump to issue an ultimatum to Netanyahu. The war had to end.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. He lent American military might to Israeli operations in Iran. But an strike on Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, moving him towards the Arab position on how best to end the war.

Several administration figures have informed media outlets that this was a turning point which motivated the leader to apply full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's strong connections with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has business dealings with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. The president began both his presidential terms with state visits to the kingdom. This year, he also stopped in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The president's Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and several Muslim states, including the Emirates, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to change his thinking, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit Israel on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where the leader heard consistent appeals to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, Trump sat nearby as the prime minister personally called Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the support of key Muslim nations in the area.

If Trump's relationship with Netanyahu gave him the room to pressure the government to strike a deal, his past with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and assisted them convince Hamas to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader gained leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that many previous presidents have faced, and Trump appears to handle with some success."

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

Now Israel has agreed to freeing over a thousand Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

The group will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, taken in the initial October 7 assault, which caused the loss of more than 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has led to the devastation of the territory and the fatalities of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal