The World Health Organization has sent a first overland convoy of medical equipment bound for Beirut from its global emergency logistics hub in Dubai, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Saturday.

The UN health agency has dispatched 22 metric tonnes of "life-saving medicines and trauma and emergency supplies", Tedros said on X.

The supplies are enough to support treatment for 50,000 patients, including 40,000 surgical interventions, he said.

PARIS, March 21 (Reuters) - The foreign ministers of the Group of Seven countries said on Saturday they stood ready to take necessary measures to support global energy supplies and reaffirmed the importance of safeguarding maritime routes, including in the Strait of Hormuz.

"We ... express support to our partners in the region in the face of the unjustifiable attacks by the Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxies," the ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as the top EU diplomat, said in a statement.

Iranian missile strikes on two southern Israeli towns wounded more than 100 people on Saturday, medics said, after Israeli air defence systems failed to intercept the projectiles.

The two direct hits tore open the fronts of residential buildings and carved craters into the ground.

Magen David Adom first responders said 84 people were wounded in the town of Arad, 10 of them seriously, hours after 33 were wounded in nearby Dimona.

NICOSIA, March 21 (Rtrs) - Britain will not be using its bases in Cyprus for any offensive action in the Iran crisis, the Cypriot government spokesperson said on Saturday, citing a phone call between British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides.

"The British Prime Minister reiterated ... that the security of the Republic of Cyprus is fundamental to the United Kingdom and, to that end, a decision has been taken to enhance the means contributing to the preventive measures already in place," the spokesperson said in a written statement.

During almost three weeks of war in Lebanon, British-Palestinian doctor Ghassan Abu-Sittah has had no respite, telling AFP he has been working "against the clock" to save children wounded in Israeli bombardment.

At the American University of Beirut Medical Center, one of the capital's main hospitals, his paediatric intensive care unit has been receiving critical cases from across the country and desperate parents praying for their children's survival.

By Jonathan Landay, M.B. Pell and Maha El Dahan

DUBAI/WASHINGTON March 21 (Reuters) - A Patriot air defence system was involved in the interception of an Iranian drone over a residential area of Bahrain on March 9, Bahrain's government said on Saturday, an incident that the U.S. military had characterisedas a direct Iranian drone strike.

At the time, Bahrain said 32 civilians had been injured, including children who required medical treatment, and the U.S. military said an Iranian drone had struck a residential neighbourhood.

March 21 (Reuters) - Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Saturday that there needs to be an "immediate cessation" of what he described as U.S.-Israeli aggression to end the war and wider regional conflict, Iran's embassy in India said in an X post on Saturday.

Pezeshkian spoke with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi by phone earlier in the day.

LONDON, March 21 (Reuters) - An Iranian man and a Romanian woman have been charged after attempting to enter Britain's nuclear submarine base in Scotland, Police Scotland said on Saturday.

The two, who British media have called suspected Iranian spies, were arrested on Thursday.

The charges come three weeks into the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. While Britain has not taken part in the attacks on Iran, the country's forces have downed Iranian missiles and drones in the Gulf region.

US President Donald Trump on Saturday gave Iran 48 hours to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to shipping or face the destruction of its energy infrastructure, as Tehran launched its most destructive attack yet on Israel.

The ultimatum, made just a day after the US leader said he was considering "winding down" military operations after three weeks of war, came as the key oil passage remained effectively closed and thousands more American Marines headed to the Middle East.

By Matt Spetalnick and Nandita Bose

WASHINGTON, March 21 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump ends the third week of the Iran war confronting a crisis that seems to be slipping out of his hands: Global energy prices are surging, the United States stands isolated from allies and more troops are preparing to deploy despite his promise the war would be only a "short excursion."