Britain said on Thursday it had signed a 350 million pound ($468 million) contract to supply the Indian army with UK-manufactured lightweight missiles, as part of a deepening weapons and defence partnership between the two countries.

The announcement came as British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was visiting Indian counterpart Narendra Modi in Mumbai, where the pair hailed the potential of the commercial links from their months-old trade deal.

In its statement on the defence deal, the British government said the new contract for Lightweight Multirole Missiles made by Thales in Northern Ireland would secure 700 jobs at a factory which currently makes the same weapons for Ukraine.

“The deal paves the way for a broader complex weapons partnership between the UK and India, currently under negotiation between the two governments,” it said.

Starmer has, over the last 12 months, thrown his weight behind Britain’s defence sector to try to drive higher economic growth, pledging to up spending in line with Nato targets, as well as focusing on winning exports, such as a recent $13.5 billion frigate contract with Norway.

Britain also said on Thursday it reached a new milestone with India on a tie-up for electric-powered engines for naval ships as both countries signed the next phase of a deal, worth an initial 250 million pounds.

Palestinians in southern Gaza clapped, cheered and danced in the pre-dawn darkness on Thursday, after Israel and Hamas agreed a ceasefire deal to end the devastating two-year war in the territory.

A crowd of around a dozen young men shouted joyful chants of “Allahu akbar”, meaning God is the greatest, outside Khan Yunis’s Nasser Hospital, as one man lifted another onto his shoulders.

A man wearing a journalist’s press vest could also be seen carried above the crowd, speaking into a microphone.

“Thanks to God for this ceasefire, thanks for the end of the bloodshed and the killing,” said Abdelmajid Abedrabbo, a resident of south Gaza.

“I am not the only one who is happy, all of the Gaza Strip is happy, all of the Arab people are happy about the ceasefire,” he added.

“Thanks and love to all those who stood with us and played a part in ending the bloodshed, sending you love from Gaza.”

Israel and Hamas on Thursday agreed a Gaza ceasefire deal that could free the remaining living hostages within days, in a major step toward ending a war that has killed tens of thousands and unleashed a humanitarian crisis.

The agreement, to be signed on Thursday, also calls for Israel to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners as well as prompt a surge of aid into Gaza after more than two years of war started in October 2023 attack on Israel.

‘We are happy’

“Despite all the wounding and the killing, and the loss of loved ones and relatives, we are happy today after the ceasefire,” Ayman al-Najjar told AFP in Khan Yunis.

“I lost my cousins and some friends, and a week ago I lost my beloved grandfather, may his soul rest in peace. But today, and in spite of all this, we are happy,” he added.

The Israel-Hamas war, which began on October 7, 2023, resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed at least 67,183 people, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures the United Nations considers credible.

Militants also took 251 people hostages into Gaza, where 47 remain, including 25 the Israeli military says are dead.

‘Indescribable’

The ceasefire agreement follows a 20-point peace plan for Gaza announced last month by US President Donald Trump.

“Thank God, President Trump has announced that war ended, we are very happy,” said Wael Radwan.

“We thank our brothers and all of those who participated even with just words to stop this war and this bloodshed.”

Khaled Al-Namnam, 26, who is displaced in Al-Maghzai in the central Gaza Strip, said he had not expected the news.

“Suddenly, I woke up in the morning to incredibly beautiful news… everyone was talking about the end of the war, aid coming in, and the crossings being opened. I felt immense happiness,” he told AFP by telephone.

“It’s a strange feeling— indescribable— after two years of bombing, fear, terror, and hunger. Truly, it feels like we are being born again.”

As news of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas spread across Gaza, the battered enclave erupted in celebration, engulfed with grief and pain. After more than two years of unrelenting bombardment, displacement and famine, journalists and survivors alike said they could finally breathe again — but insisted the world must never forget what Gaza endured.

The deal — brokered in Sharm El-Sheikh under a US-backed plan — calls for Israel to release Palestinian prisoners and allow aid into Gaza, where famine was officially declared in August. Yet for the more than two million Gazans who have survived two years of siege, the scars run deeper than any diplomatic paper can heal.

For Gaza’s photojournalists, reporters, and authors who documented the horror up close, the ceasefire brought a fragile sense of reprieve, shadowed by disbelief.

“I hope this time is different. I hope it’s a real, lasting ceasefire. I hope we’re not given more false hope,” Plestia Alaqad, an award-winning journalist, echoed a common sentiment that the ceasefire would hold, unlike last time.

Many Gazan journalists said the ceasefire was not an end, but a moment to breathe — to mourn, and to remember. “None of us made it out completely alive,” Maha Hussaini, a human rights advocate and journalist, wrote on X.

“But we will rise again, because the fight to end the illegal occupation will never die. We’ve made it with you, we’ve made it in you, our Gaza,” she added.

Many questioned whether Israel would honour the agreement, calling it “a test of promises made over the graves of thousands.”

Palestinian writer Dr Yara Hawari, in a thread posted on X, noted that there are a lot of unknowns in the Gaza ceasefire deal, as Israel is notorious for breaking ceasefire deals.

“We know that [Israeli PM] Netanyahu says one thing to an international audience and then something else to a domestic audience. We also know that Israel is not a good faith actor- it is a regime that has been found guilty of genocide by the highest court in the international legal regime,” she added.

She believed it is really important that people understand that this is not the “peace deal” that it is being touted to be. “It certainly will not lead to the end of the occupation.”

Another Palestinian writer, Mosab Abu Toha, said that the so-called peace plan offers little solace for those who have endured two years of horror. 

Calling it “a peace plan without peace,” the writer asked how anyone could explain to future generations that the world “chose to stop a genocide in phases.” “I was its victim, its witness, and its unwilling chronicler,” they wrote.

Meanwhile, journalist Mehdi Hasan voiced doubt over President Trump’s peace claims, saying genuine peace in Gaza would require concrete actions first, adding that Trump “has a record of disappointment.”

Author Fatima Bhutto also questioned Israel’s intentions, expressing grief over the killings of journalists Al-Sharif and Hossam Shabat earlier this year.

For the people of Gaza, especially its journalists who chronicled the war from the frontlines, the truce felt less like peace and more like a fragile breath between battles — a moment to remember those lost and to remind the world that survival does not mean healing.