The US and Israel began their war on Iran by killing its most powerful figure and exhorting Iranians to seize the moment for change, but a fractured opposition and unclear American aims leave the future leadership of a post-clerical Iran an open question.

US President Donald Trump urged Iranians to rise up and "take over your government" as he launched "Operation Epic Fury", but his administration has since sent mixed signals about whether regime change is Washington's goal.

By Steve Holland and Humeyra Pamuk

WASHINGTON, March 4 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump is discussing with his advisors what role the U.S could have in Iran after the military campaign while U.S. intelligence is monitoring reports that Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Iran's slain supreme leader, has emerged as ‌a frontrunner to succeed him, the White House said on Wednesday.

France's President Emmanuel Macron said he urged Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday to "refrain from a ground offensive" in Lebanon in their first phone call since last summer.

"I called on the Israeli prime minister to preserve Lebanon's territorial integrity and to refrain from a ground offensive," Macron said on X, after Israeli ground forces pushed into several border towns and villages in southern Lebanon.

By Mushtaq Ali and Hedayatshah Hedayat

LAL PUR, Afghanistan/PESHAWAR, Pakistan, March 4 (Reuters) - Several people living along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan said they were considering fleeing their homes as heavy shelling and explosions marked a seventh day of fighting between troops from both sides on Wednesday.

The South Asian allies-turned-foes are in their worst fighting in years following Pakistani airstrikes on major Afghan cities last week, adding volatility to a region already on edge over U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran.

WASHINGTON, March 4 (Reuters) - Information on Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's whereabouts impacted the timing of the U.S.-Israeli strike on Iran that killed the supreme leader, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Steve Holland and Ryan Patrick Jones; writing by Susan Heavey;Editing by David Ljunggren)

In his makeshift tent in Gaza City, displaced Palestinian Jamal Abu Mohsen says the bombs are falling less often these days.

Since Israel launched its military campaign against Iran -- which has since widened to Lebanon -- the 33-year-old Palestinian has noticed a lull in the devastated Palestinian territory.

"Air strikes have become fewer," Abu Mohsen told AFP from his tent in the north of Gaza.

But the quiet is only relative.

Despite a US-brokered ceasefire in place since October 10, explosions still rock Gaza, Abu Mohsen said.

KYIV/WASHINGTON March 4 (Reuters) - With the United States focused on its conflict with Iran, Ukraine could face a critical shortage of U.S. air defence missiles at a time when Russia shows no signs of easing its campaign of striking Ukrainian cities.

Since the U.S. and Israel began strikes on Iran on Saturday, Iran has fired hundreds of ballistic missiles and drones at Gulf countries. Most have been intercepted, including with the PAC-3 Patriot missile interceptors that Ukraine relies on to defend its energy and military infrastructure from ballistic missiles.

LISBON, March 4 (Reuters) - Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro defended his decision to let the United States use the Lajes airbase on Portugal's Azores Islands during the Iran bombing campaign, a position at odds with that of neighbour Spain which refused such requests.

A longstanding agreement with the United States allows Washington to use the base without prior authorisation during peacetime, but required Portugal to give approval once hostilities began.

By Lucy Craymer, Raghed Waked and Alessandro Parodi

DUBAI, March 4 (Reuters) - Stranded passengers in the Gulf states are waiting for one thing: a phone call confirming their flight home will depart.

Even then, few celebrate until the plane has taken off and cleared Emirati airspace.

"There was just this eerie feeling on the plane. Everyone was just dead quiet. No one really spoke," said Zoe Jackson, who was on one of the first flights out of Dubai on Tuesday.

By Michael Georgy

DUBAI, March 4 (Reuters) - Ayatollah Alireza Arafi has emerged as a central figure in Iran’s power structure at a moment of unprecedented turmoil, propelled into a leadership role from the ranks of top clerics after the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Once known largely as a scholar‑administrator, the hardline cleric is now one of three senior officials entrusted with steering the state through its most volatile period since the 1979 revolution.