At 10:56 pm an alert announcing the approach of an Iranian missile sounds, and a brief, heart-pounding wait begins in the operations room at Magen David Adom (MDA) as first responders get ready to deploy.

In this nerve centre for Israel's equivalent of the Red Cross, three floors underground in Ramla, near Tel Aviv, a paramedic adjusts her helmet then picks up the phone to dispatch her colleagues: four debris impact sites have just been reported.

All eyes are fixed on screens displaying the number of calls to 101, the number for the national emergency response organisation.

WASHINGTON, March 9 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that Australia was "making a terrible humanitarian mistake" by allowing Iran's national women's soccer team to be sent back to Iran and called on Australia's prime minister to give asylum to team members.

(Reporting by Katharine Jackson; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Under a banner bearing the portrait of Iran's slain supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the words "your path will continue", crowds gathered in Tehran to pledge allegiance to his son and successor.

Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, was named the Islamic republic's new leader on Monday, 10 days into the war that began when the United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran and has since ensnared the Middle East.

NEW YORK, March 9 (Reuters) - Turkish state-run lender Halkbank and the U.S. Justice Department have reached a deferred prosecution agreement, the judge overseeing the long-running U.S. criminal case against the bank said in a court filing on Monday, without providing further details of the deal.

In the case, prosecutors had accused of fraud, money laundering and conspiracy for allegedly helping Iran evade American economic sanctions.

Halkbank's case has long been a thorn in U.S.-Turkey relations, with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan calling it an "unlawful, ugly" step.

(Corrects to read 'last year' (not 'this year'), paragraph 11)

March 9 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has begun oil output cuts, sources said on Monday, becoming the latest Gulf producer impacted by the U.S. and Israeli war on Iran which has halted ship traffic in the region and sent oil prices up nearly 30% to $119 a barrel on Monday.

Adding to market jitters were Tehran's hardline succession plans which cooled hopes of a quick end to hostilities.

By Rami Ayyub, Nidal al-Mughrabi and Alexander Cornwell

JERUSALEM/CAIRO, March 9 (Reuters) - Talks to advance President Donald Trump's plan to end the Gaza war have been on hold since last week when the U.S. and Israel jointly attacked Iran, sparking a broader Middle East war, three sources with direct knowledge of the negotiations said.

As Israel's national consciousness rallies behind the country's second offensive against Iran in under a year, a small group of anti-war activists equipped with posters and loudspeakers have mobilised to voice dissent.

The vast majority of Jewish Israelis support the ongoing campaign of strikes on Iran, according to national polls published since the joint US-Israel operation began on February 28.

A broad sweep of politicians from across the spectrum have also backed the military campaign, which has now expanded with Israeli forces fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon.

PAPHOS, Cyprus, March 9 (Reuters) - France will send two frigates as part of the European Union's naval mission Aspides in the Red Sea, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday.

"We are in the process of setting upa purely defensive, purely escort mission, which must be prepared together with both European and non-European states," Macron said after meeting with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Cyprus.

(Reporting by John Irish and Michele Kambas; Writing by Gianluca Lo Nostro)

KYIV, March 9 (Reuters) - President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday that Ukraine had received 11 requests from countries neighboring Iran as well as European states and the United States for drone interceptors, electronic warfare systems and training.

"We also reviewed in detail requests from the states for security support from our side in countering 'Shahed' drones and other similar challenges," Zelenskiy said on the Telegram app after meeting his top military and government officials.

"Some requests have already been met with concrete decisions and specific support."

France and its allies are preparing a "defensive" mission to reopen the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz, President Emmanuel Macron said Monday as the Middle East war entered its second week.

The French leader landed by helicopter on the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier, dispatched to the Mediterranean after US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28 triggered a war that has sown regional chaos and which threatens to spill into other parts of the world.