Two years on from October 7th, Donald Trump is on the cusp of brokering a fragile peace deal between Israel and Hamas. But with Hamas showing signs of reconstituting itself and Israeli forces still in control of much of the Strip, few believe the war is truly over.

In this episode, we hear from The Telegraph’s Jerusalem correspondent Henry Bodkin, fresh from an Israeli army embed inside Gaza City, about what he saw on the ground and why Hamas’s resilience could shape what comes next.

Venetia also speaks to Dalia Horn, whose brother-in-law Eitan Horn is one of around twenty hostages believed to be alive in Gaza out of the 48 not yet released.

Plus, Sophia Yan catches up again with two close friends from the Oasis of Peace — one Jewish Israeli, one Palestinian — who she has spoken to throughout the conflict about their friendship and whether they still believe in the two-state solution.

Read Henry’s dispatch: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/10/04/inside-gaza-city-idf-face-younger-braver-hamas/

Read El Sharabi’s book extract: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/10/04/eli-sharabi-hamas-hostage-book-extract-2/

Listen to Sophia’s previous conversations with the best friends:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/02/14/battle-lines-israel-oasis-of-peace-palestine/

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/10/09/israels-oasis-of-peace-one-year-later/

https://linktr.ee/BattleLines

Contact us with feedback or ideas:

battlelines@telegraph.co.uk

@venetiarainey

@RolandOliphant

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and President Trump delivered extraordinary speeches to top military generals this week, declaring a war on the "enemy within" and signaling a radical transformation of the US armed forces.

To decode what it all means, Roland Oliphant speaks with Mark Cancian, senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a former Marine Corps colonel. Are American soldiers lazier than before? Is there any chance the US Navy will start building battleships again? And how significant is Trump's call for cities to be used as "training grounds"?

They also discuss the ongoing redrafting of the National Defense Strategy and what it means for America's allies and enemies.

https://linktr.ee/BattleLines

Contact us with feedback or ideas:

battlelines@telegraph.co.uk

@venetiarainey

@RolandOliphant

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House to discuss bringing an end to the conflict in Gaza. Last week, he was giving a fiery speech at the UN General Assembly denying the accusation of genocide levelled at Israel following a UN report.

In response to an earlier Battle Lines interview with one of the report's authors, Venetia gets the other side of the argument with Dr. Eran Shamir-Borer, a former head of the International Law Department in the Israel Defense Forces and part of Israel's team at the International Court of Justice defending the country's against a genocide case there. He is now director of the Center for Security and Democracy at the Israel Democracy Institute and shares his legal perspective on why the UN Commission of Inquiry's report was wrong and Israel is not committing genocide in Gaza. Plus he discusses how Hamas' operating tactics makes the Gaza war one of the most morally and legally complex in modern history.

https://linktr.ee/BattleLines

Contact us with feedback or ideas:

battlelines@telegraph.co.uk

@venetiarainey

@RolandOliphant

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.