Hundreds gathered in Tel Aviv and some other Israeli cities on Saturday to protest the war in the Middle East, in unauthorised demonstrations that security forces sought to disperse.

Weekly protests against the war launched by Israel and the United States against Iran on February 28 have been taking place in Tel Aviv and elsewhere, initially drawing only a few dozen participants.

Numbers now appear to be rising, though they are far from the tens of thousands who filled the streets last year to protest the war in Gaza.

By Menna AlaaElDin, Nayera Abdallah and Humeyra Pamuk

CAIRO/DUBAI, March 28 (Reuters) - Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis launched missiles at Israel on Saturday, their first such attack since the start of the Iran war, heightening the risk that a conflict now in its fifth week could expand further across the region.

Speaking before the strike, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States expected to conclude military operations within weeks. The Houthis said they would continue their operations until the "aggression" on all fronts ended.

Iranian authorities have ordered the closure of a popular chain of Tehran cafes over designs on its takeaway cups deemed to be referring to the killing of supreme leader Ali Khamenei at the start of the US-Israeli war against the Islamic republic, media reports said Saturday.

The exiled son of Iran's last shah, Reza Pahlavi, earned thunderous applause from a packed conference hall of US conservatives on Saturday as he urged Washington to press its military campaign against Tehran.

Speaking to a raucous audience in Texas, Pahlavi cast the war as a historic opportunity to topple Iran's clerical leadership, drawing cheers with a vision of his country transformed from an adversary of the United States into an ally.

Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi was facing a fierce backlash Saturday from some Iranians for joining a transitional body the son of Iran's ousted shah hopes will smooth his path to return to Iran.

Reza Pahlavi, whose father Mohammad Reza was brought down by the 1979 Islamic revolution, has repeatedly said he is ready to lead a transition if the Islamic republic falls in the now month-long war against the US and Israel.

French police stopped an apparent bomb attack outside a US bank in Paris early Saturday when they arrested a person about to set off a homemade explosive device, officials and sources close to the case told AFP.

The incident occurred around 3:30 am (0130 GMT) in front of a Bank of America building in the chic 8th arrondissement, a couple of streets from the Champs-Elysees.

Police grabbed the suspect just after he placed a device, made of five litres of liquid (1.3 US gallons), believed to be fuel, and an ignition system, one of the sources said.

Here are the latest developments in the Middle East war:

- Pentagon readying for ground operations: report -

The Pentagon is preparing for weeks of ground operations in Iran -- potentially including raids on Kharg Island and coastal sites near the Strait of Hormuz -- though US President Donald Trump has yet to approve any deployment, the Washington Post reported Saturday.

Any ground operation would stop short of a full-scale invasion, instead involving raids by special operations forces and conventional infantry troops, the Post said, citing unnamed officials.

LONDON, March 28 (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of central London on Saturday for a "March to Stop the Far Right" with many demonstrators decrying the right-wing Reform UK party of Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage, which is topping opinion polls.

Backed by trade unions and civil society groups, the Together Alliance demonstration looked set to be one of the biggest in the British capital in recent years with about 30,000 people expected to take part, according to a police official.

MANILA/HANOI, March 28 (Reuters) - The Philippines and China have resumed high-level talks this week over the disputed South China Sea, exploring preliminary steps toward oil and gas cooperation while addressing energy and fertilizer supply issues amid the ongoing Middle East conflict, the Philippine foreign ministry said.

The 11th round of talks under a bilateral consultation mechanism established in 2017 was the first such meeting since January 2025.

CAIRO, March 28 (Reuters) - An Israeli strike on a media car in southern Lebanon killed at least two Lebanese broadcast journalists, Lebanon's Al Manar TV reported on Saturday.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the reports.

(Reporting by Jaidaa Taha, Maya Gebeily and Alexander Cornwell; Editing by Joe Bavier)