• EU welcomed Lebanon ceasefire announcement.
• Differences remain over nuclear programme: Iranian official. 
• Lebanon-Israel to begin ceasefire at 5pm EST: Trump 

US President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that Lebanon and Israel had agreed on a 10-day ceasefire, as optimism grew that the Iran war may be nearing an end.

Trump said in a social media post that the ceasefire would start at 5pm eastern time (2100 GMT), aiming to halt a conflict between Israel and the Iran-aligned Lebanese group Hezbollah that was reignited by the US-Israeli war against Iran.

He said he had held “excellent conversations” with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun.

“These two Leaders have agreed that in order to achieve peace between their countries, they will formally begin a 10-day ceasefire at 5pm EST,” he said. “Both sides want to see peace, and I believe that will happen, quickly!”

Trump said he had directed US Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine to work with the two countries to achieve lasting peace.

The war with Iran spilt into Lebanon on March 2, when Hezbollah opened fire in support of Tehran, prompting an Israeli offensive in Lebanon 15 months after the last major conflict.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen welcomed the ceasefire announcement, saying on X: “This is a relief, as this conflict has already claimed far too many lives.”

Breakthrough on ‘sticky issue’ between US and Iran

Thousands of people have been killed, mostly in Iran and Lebanon, since US-Israeli attacks on Iran began on February 28, triggering Iranian airstrikes on Iran’s Gulf neighbours and reigniting the Israel-Hezbollah conflict.

Soaring energy costs have rattled investors and policymakers globally since Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and gas supply flows.

Closure of the strait has caused the worst oil price shock in history and forced the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to downgrade its outlook for the global economy, warning prolonged conflict could push the world to the brink of recession.

But hopes of a deal between Iran and the United States have been growing, with a two-week ceasefire in force.

A security source said a Pakistani mediator had made a breakthrough on “sticky issues”, although Tehran said the fate of its nuclear programme had not been resolved. Trump has said the accord would open the Strait of Hormuz.

Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) and Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Field Marshal Asim Munir, an important figure in mediation efforts, arrived in Tehran on Wednesday to try to prevent a renewal of the conflict after talks in Islamabad that ended without a deal.

A senior Iranian official told Reuters on Thursday the trip had led to greater hopes for a second round of talks and an extension of a two-week ceasefire, but said fundamental differences remain over its nuclear programme.

‘Locked and Loaded’

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said troops were poised to restart combat operations if a deal was not reached with Iran.

“We are reloading with more power than ever before, and better intelligence,” Hegseth told a Pentagon briefing. “We are locked and loaded on your critical dual-use infrastructure, on your remaining power generation, and on your energy industry. We’d rather not have to do it.”

But a security source told Reuters a deal was closing in and that the US wants a breakthrough before the ceasefire expires next week. Washington is offering to lift sanctions and unfreeze billions of dollars’ worth of Iranian assets, he said.

Iran will open the strait only if a permanent ceasefire is reached and there are United Nations guarantees that the US and Israel will not attack again in future, he said.

A separate government source said the talks would be held “soon” in Islamabad, although no date has been set.

Stock markets have rallied strongly in recent days on expectations of a swift resolution to the fighting, with global equities vaulting past their previous all-time highs in trading on Thursday. However, oil prices gained, showing continued uncertainty about the ceasefire prospects and the opening of the strait.

Iran’s nuclear ambitions were a sticking point at last weekend’s talks. The US proposed a 20-year suspension of all nuclear activity by Iran — an apparent concession from longstanding demands for a permanent ban. Tehran suggested a halt of three to five years, according to people familiar with the proposals.

Washington has pressed for any highly enriched uranium (HEU) to be removed from Iran. Tehran has demanded that international sanctions against it be lifted.

Two Iranian sources said there were signs of a compromise emerging on the HEU stockpile, with Tehran considering shipping part, but not all, of it out of the country, something it had previously ruled out.

Indian government launched a bid to overhaul its democratic system on Thursday, with bills to increase the size of parliament and bring forward plans to reserve a third of seats for women — though the opposition dismissed it as an attempt to manipulate elections.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the lower house of parliament the proposals — which would also increase the number of legislators and women in regional assemblies and redraw constituencies — would move India in a “new direction”.

“I believe that (women’s) voice in this house will bring new strength, fresh thinking, and a greater sense of sensitivity,” he said.

The government said the alterations to boundaries reflected population changes since seats were last fixed after a 1971 census.

Opposition says boundaries move unconstitutional 

Modi’s National Democratic Alliance government does not have the two-thirds majority it needs to get the measures through both houses of parliament and is hoping to convince some smaller parties and opposition groups to back the bills.

Larger opposition groups said they supported quotas for women, but accused the government of seeking to manipulate the system to get more votes, and said they would oppose the changes when parliament votes on them this week.

“The government should simplify women’s reservation so that it comes into effect immediately upon the passage of the law,” the Congress party, which leads the main opposition alliance, said in a post on X.

The bills would increase the number of lawmakers in the lower house of parliament by around 55% to 850 — and make similar increases to state legislatures — by the time of the next parliamentary elections due in 2029.

The bills would reserve one-third of seats for women in the expanded assemblies by the same date. The one-third share was agreed in legislation passed in 2023, but that was linked to the next census which would take the changes beyond the next election.

The changes also need to be ratified by at least half the state legislatures before they can become law.

India’s parliament currently does not reserve any seats for women, who make up nearly half of its 968 million voters but constitute only 14% of the lawmakers in the lower house and 17% in the upper house.

About 10% of the lawmakers in the country’s state legislatures are women.

Fourteen-year-old Fadel al-Naji used to be a keen footballer but is now largely confined to his home in Gaza City since both legs were severed in an Israeli drone attack in September.

He sits sullenly on a couch with one hollow pant leg dangling and the other tucked into his waist beside his 11-year-old brother who lost an eye in the same strike.

“He has become withdrawn and isolated,” said his mother Najwa al-Naji, showing old videos of him doing kick-ups on her phone. “It is as if he is dying slowly, and I wish that they would fit him with prosthetic limbs.”

But those are in scarce supply for Gaza’s nearly 5,000 war amputees – a quarter of whom are children like al-Naji – because of Israeli restrictions on materials like plaster of Paris, seven aid and medical sources told Reuters.

Israel, which fought a two-year war with Hamas fighters in the Palestinian enclave, cites security concerns as the reason for restrictions.

Taken together with Gaza’s pre-war amputee population provided by Palestinian health officials, its per capita amputee rate now exceeds even Cambodia, which had been the worst due to landmines, aid group Humanity & Inclusion said.

Such is the need that two medical centres said they were trying to reuse old prosthetic limbs recovered from people killed in the war. Others are creating makeshift artificial limbs with plastic piping or wooden planks, medics said, though this risks damaging the stump or causing infection.

Unfulfilled promise

Gaza’s amputees are a symbol of unfulfilled pledges from the October ceasefire and US President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan envisaging full aid “without interference”.

It also foresaw the reopening of the Rafah border crossing – Gaza’s sole route out to Egypt – but medical evacuations including for amputees have been irregular.

Israel restricts imports of items it says have potential military as well as civilian use under a policy pre-dating the two-year war. While plaster of Paris and other plastic components for prostheses are not specified on Israeli lists of so-called dual use items, “construction products” are there, an Israeli export control document showed.

Israel’s COGAT military agency, which controls access to Gaza, says it facilitates the regular entry of medical equipment but will not permit materials that could be used by Hamas for a “terrorist build-up”.

Responding to questions about prostheses, COGAT said it is in dialogue with the UN and other aid groups to identify ways to enable an adequate medical response.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, which supports the Artificial Limbs and Polio Centre in Gaza, the main centre for prosthetics, said imports of plaster of Paris have been almost completely restricted for over four months with supplies left only to June or July.

“What we are producing now are very small quantities compared to the actual need,” said Hosni Mhana, the centre’s spokesperson, without giving numbers.

The Qatari-funded Sheikh Hamad Hospital said no supplies have been received during the war and that it has run out. It can now only offer maintenance on existing prostheses. “There are no local alternatives for prosthetic manufacturing materials,” said the hospital’s General Director Ahmed Naim.

Humanity & Inclusion, which has fit 118 temporary prostheses in Gaza since early 2025, said supplies from its last shipment in December 2024 are dwindling.

The Trump-led Board of Peace, which has sought to boost aid for Gaza, said it took very seriously the hardships of amputees and other patients in Gaza.

“These are urgent civilian needs,” it said in a statement to Reuters, noting that the ceasefire obligations included the sustained flow of humanitarian, commercial and medical supplies.

Restrictions and delays are raised with the relevant authorities, it added. “We have significant guarantees and commitments that these restrictions will be eased and eliminated as armed parties agree to decommission their weapons and hand over authority to a Palestinian technocratic government in Gaza.”

Prolonged trauma

Artificial limbs cannot be imported whole into Gaza since they are built for each patient, with plaster used to take an exact cast of the residual limb to shape a custom-made socket.

Reuters interviewed three other Gaza amputees all struggling to resume their pre-war lives without prostheses.

Some of the amputees are on a waiting list and may have undergone preparatory work, which can include stump revisions, a form of surgery to hone its shape.

One on the list is Hazem Foura, a 40-year-old former office worker unable to work since losing his left leg above the knee in December 2024 when he says Israel bombed his house.

“I am not asking for the luxuries of life, I am asking for a limb so I can regain my humanity,” he said.

Lack of prostheses severely disrupts recovery and prolongs trauma for amputees, many of whom might have avoided limb loss had more specialist surgeons been available.

It also puts them in greater danger from ongoing Israeli attacks, which have killed 750 Palestinians since the ceasefire, Palestinian health officials say.

Israeli restrictions on items like wheelchairs have eased since the ceasefire, the ICRC and the UN children’s agency said, but medics said manoeuvring around Gaza’s rubble-strewn roads remains a challenge.

As well as materials, expertise is lacking, with only eight prosthetists still in Gaza, according to the World Health Organisation. Follow-up care for children is especially tough, medics said, since they need regular refittings as they grow.

“The amputation itself is not just a lost limb, it’s lost hope, it’s lost independence,” said Heba Bashir, prosthetic and orthotic technical officer for Humanity & Inclusion. “For the kids, it means losing their future.”