By Steven Scheer

JERUSALEM, March 2 (Reuters) - Israel's main international gateway, Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, said on its WhatsApp channel that it expects to reopen as early as Monday evening in an "extremely limited format" after the conflict with Iran shut Israeli airspace.

The airport said that starting on Tuesday, "flight operations will gradually expand depending on the security situation," although only Israeli carriers are expected to resume flights.

By Mushtaq Ali

PESHAWAR, March 2 (Reuters) - Pakistan sent the military into Himalayan Gilgit-Baltistan region on Monday and banned large gatherings nationwide after deadly protests against U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran spread, with 26 dead so far.

In the northern city of Skardu, in Shi'ite majority Gilgit-Baltistan, normally a tourist hotspot, protesters set fire to a U.N. office on Sunday with 14 people, including a soldier, killed in the ensuing clashes, local officials said. Two others died in the capital Islamabad.

KYIV, March 2 (Reuters) - A new round of U.S.-brokered peace talks between Ukraine and Russia, scheduled for week, has not been canceled following the weekend strikes on Iran by the U.S. and Israel, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday.

Zelenskiy said that Kyiv was considering a new location for the talks, which had been due to take place on March 5 and 6 in Abu Dhabi, and that Turkey or Switzerland were possibilities.

As drones swarmed the skies above Iraq's Erbil and air defences streaked up to shoot them down, residents watched from below, fearing the fire would soon reach them.

Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region hosts US-led coalition troops, and its capital, Erbil, is home to a major US consulate complex, making it a target of the war in the Middle East, triggered by the joint US-Israeli strikes Saturday on Iran.

For days, loud bangs have been heard in Erbil as US air defences repeatedly intercepted drones.

MOSCOW, March 2 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin told UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in a phone call on Monday that he was ready to relay his complaints about Iranian strikes against UAE territory to Tehran, the Kremlin said.

It cited the UAE leader as saying that his country was not being used as a base to attack Iran and that Iranian strikes on the UAE could not therefore be justified.

As Israeli strikes shattered the nighttime quiet, Beirut cafe owner Hassan rushed home to whisk his wife and young daughter to safety in the nearby mountains outside the city.

The sound of heavy gunfire was a warning to residents that war had returned. The roads quickly clogged and the trip took Hassan, 30, and his family more than three hours.

"We rushed out without taking anything with us, no clothes and no food for my daughter," he said.

Thriving thanks to their strategic geographical position, strong state backing and leading carriers, huge air hubs in the Gulf oil kingdoms have been shaken by the conflict over Iran.

Following US and Israel strikes on the Islamic Republic, Iran's retaliatory strikes have hit targets across the Gulf, forcing authorities to close airspace and stalling traffic at big hubs such as Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

"Gulf airspace closures are disrupting aviation corridors between Europe and Asia," wrote analysts from ING bank in a note on Monday.

MADRID, March 2 (Reuters) - Fifteen U.S. aircraft have left the Rota and Moron military bases in southern Spain since the U.S. and Israel launched weekend attacks on Iran, maps by flight tracking website FlightRadar24 showed on Monday.

Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said Spain would not allow its military bases, which are jointly operated by the U.S. and Spain but under Spanish sovereignty, to be used for attacks on Iran, which Spain has condemned.

At least seven of the aircraft were shown on FlightRadar24 as having landed at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

AKROTIRI, Cyprus, March 2 (Reuters) - A drone strike hit a British air base in Cyprus overnight, causing limited damage and no casualties, Cypriot and British officials said on Monday, in a marked escalation effectively dragging an EU member state into the conflict surrounding Iran.

GENEVA, March 2 (Reuters) - The World Health Organization said on Monday that a hospital in Iran's capital has been evacuated after explosions nearby and that it is working to verify reports that three other medical centres in the country had been hit since the start of the U.S.-Israeli air war against Iran on February 28.

"We understand patients were moved due to nearby explosions that caused collateral damage to the hospital," said a WHO spokesperson, referring to the Gandhi Hospital in Tehran.