As the Hamas-Israel ceasefire deal comes into effect, we speak with Jotam Confino to hear why he thinks the deal is unlikely to hold and why Israelis are angry with Netanyahu’s government. We also hear from Rosalia Bollen, UNICEF Communications Specialist, who describes the scale of the humanitarian challenge in the Gaza strip where 1. 8 million people are in urgent need of emergency shelter, food and essential household items. Plus: on Donald Trump's first day back in the White House, Brussels correspondent Joe Barnes examines just what he wants from the world, and whether he'll get it. 

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Roland Oliphant and Venetia Rainey discuss the Gaza ceasefire, how the deal happened and what it means for Israel, Hamas, and the world. Plus: reactions from Ruwaida Amer on the ground in Gaza and from Gil Dickmann, the cousin of Carmel Gat, one of the hostages killed by Hamas.

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The former British Army colonel and chemical weapons expert tells Venetia Rainey about his recent trip to Syria, his optimism about the country’s future, and the efforts to find the evidence of Assad’s use of chemical weapons. Plus: Can negotiators get a Gaza ceasefire deal over the line before Donald Trump’s inauguration next Monday? 

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With no end in sight to conflicts in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar and many more places, 2025 promises to be at least as tumultuous as last year. So what is the biggest threat to security for Britain, and its Western allies?

From complacency and our underfunded army to China and Russia, we get the views of Alicia Kearns MP, former chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee and now Shadow Minister for National Security; General Lord Richard Dannatt, former head of the British army; and John Bolton, former foreign security advisor to Donald Trump and ambassador to the UN.

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In late December Israeli forces raided the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, forcibly evacuating its wards of patients and medical staff and arresting the hospital’s prominent director, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya. Venetia Rainey catches up with The Telegraph’s Middle East correspondent Jotam Confino to find out more.

Plus: the inside track on a migrant smuggling network that reaches from Afghanistan’s Herat to the French port of Calais. Our foreign correspondent Akhtar Makoii infiltrated the network for The Telegraph. 

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On another special episode of Battle Lines, Roland Oliphant and guests look at the war memoir. How have war memoirs shaped our understanding of wars? Has the art and the role of the memoir changed over time? And will the ones written today similarly influence how future generations will remember the wars of our time?

Contributors

Francis Dearnley (The Telegraph’s Assistant Comment Editor)

Dr. Matilda Greig (Historian at the National Army Museum in London, specialising in the Napoleonic period)

Colin Freeman (Journalist and author)

'Dead Men Telling Tales, Napoleonic War Veterans and the Military Memoir Industry, 1808-1914' by Matilda Greig, is available here:

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/dead-men-telling-tales-9780192896025?cc=es&lang=en

'Curse of the Al Dulaimi Hotel : And Other Half-Truths from Baghdad', by Colin Freeman, is available here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Curse-Al-Dulaimi-Hotel-Half-Truths/dp/1906308020

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In another special episode looking back at history, Venetia Rainey talks with the author of ‘Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs’, a book that came highly recommended by David Knowles. It’s a new look at how the Aztecs dealt with internal conflict, how they lost the war with the Spanish, and how history has misremembered them.

'Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs’, by Camilla Townsend, is available here:

https://global.oup.com/ukhe/product/fifth-sun-9780197577660 

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On this special episode of Battle Lines, Roland Oliphant and guests tackle the late David Knowles’ favourite conversational gambit: Who is your favourite of Napoleon’s Marshals? As they ponder their own choice they look back at who the generals were, what made them ‘great’, and why they continue to capture the imagination.

Contributors

Francis Dearnley (The Telegraph’s Assistant Comment Editor)

Dr. Matilda Greig (Historian at the National Army Museum in London, specialising in the Napoleonic period.

Dr. Zack White (historian and host of 'The Napoleonic Wars Podcast')

The Napoleonic & Revolutionary War Graves Charity

To learn more about the charity that aims to provide similar care to the dead of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars to that we see from more recent conflicts, visit:

https://www.nrwgc.com/

'Napoleonic Objects and their Afterlives', edited by Matilda Greig, is available here:

https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/napoleonic-objects-and-their-afterlives-9781350415072/ 

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As mysterious drone sightings near US military bases continue to unsettle anxious citizens, we look into what a new drone age means for the future of warfare. The flying objects have been defining the battlefield for a while, dominating the wars in Ukraine, Sudan and the Middle East. But now, with the advent of Artificial Intelligence, anyone can build an autonomous killer drone. So could this herald a new age of assassinations and mass destruction? How can it be controlled? And can it be kept out of the wrong hands?

The Telegraph’s Arthur Scott-Geddes tells Roland Oliphant how he turned a toy into an assassination device and why more conversation around containing this technology is needed.

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In the first episode of our special holiday series taking a left-field look at conflict and war, we hear personal stories from two countries that have had to grapple with multiple crises in recent years: Lebanon and Afghanistan.

Journalist Sune Engel Rasmussen lived and worked in Afghanistan for nearly a decade. He spent hundreds of hours interviewing everyone from Taliban fighters to female activists for his book “Twenty Years: Hope, War, and the Betrayal of an Afghan Generation”   He talks about the lasting impact of America’s post 9/11 invasion in 2001 on young Afghans and how the Taliban managed to make such a startling comeback.

Plus: Victoria Lupton, founder and CEO of charity Seenaryo on how Lebanon is faring post-ceasefire deal and their film Tilka, which follows five women navigating the collapse of the country prior to the war.

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