BEIRUT, May 9 (Reuters) - An Israeli strike on the southern Lebanese town of Saksakiyeh killed at least seven people, including a child, and wounded 15 on Saturday, Lebanon's health ministry said.

The Israeli military said it had struck Hezbollah militants in the town, accusing them of planning attacks against Israeli soldiers.

"The IDF is aware of reports regarding harm to uninvolved civilians in the structure in which the terrorists were struck. The details of the incident are under review," the military said in a statement.

LONDON, May 9 (Reuters) - Britain said on Saturday it was deploying its warship HMS Dragon to the Middle East in preparation for a potential multinational effort to protect shipping in the Strait of Hormuz once conditions allow.

HMS Dragon, an air defence destroyer, was sent to the Eastern Mediterranean in March, shortly after the start of the Iran war, to help defend Cyprus.

By Mohammed Torokman

ASASA, West Bank, May 9 - Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank forced Palestinians to exhume the body of their father from his freshly dug village grave, his family said, near a settlement re-established by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government.

Hussein Asasa, 80, died on Friday of natural causes and was buried that evening at the cemetery of Asasa village near Jenin, with all the necessary permits from Israel's military, whose forces were at the site, his son Mohammed said.

JERUSALEM, May 9 (Reuters) - Two activists arrested last month when Israeli forces intercepted the Gaza-bound flotilla they were travelling on are expected to be deported in the coming days after being released from security detention on Saturday, their lawyers said.

Saif Abu Keshek, a Spanish national, and Brazilian Thiago Avila were detained by Israeli authorities on April 29 and brought to Israel.

The activists were part of a second Global Sumud Flotilla launched from Spain on April 12 to try to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza by delivering aid to the enclave.

Here are the latest developments in the Middle East war:

- Kuwait drone attack -

The Kuwaiti military said a drone attack at dawn had been repelled.

"At dawn today, the armed forces detected a number of hostile drones in Kuwaiti airspace, which were dealt with in accordance with established procedures," the general staff of the army said on X, without specifying the origin of the drones.

- Ship hit off Qatar -

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards threatened Saturday to target US sites in the Middle East if its tankers come under fire, Iranian media reported, as Washington was left waiting for Tehran's response to its latest negotiating position.

"Any attack on Iranian tankers and commercial vessels will result in a heavy attack on one of the American centres in the region and enemy ships," the Guards said, a day after US strikes on two Iranian tankers in the Gulf of Oman.

Under the bleachers of a West Bank stadium, a dozen men from Gaza live in a former changing room, blocked from returning home by the war that erupted more than two and a half years ago.

Among those stranded is Sameer Abu Salah, 54, who had been working odd jobs in Israel's commercial hub of Tel Aviv, where wages are far higher than in his home city of Khan Yunis in Gaza.

He had then gone to Nablus, in the north of the occupied West Bank, where he is now trapped.

By Idrees Ali, Erin Banco and Hatem Maher

WASHINGTON/CAIRO, May 9 (Reuters) - The U.S. and Iran appeared no closer on Saturday to finding an end to their war after the two sides traded fire in the Gulf amid a tenuous ceasefire, while a U.S. intelligence analysis concluded Tehran could withstand a naval blockade for months.

Recent days have seen the biggest flare-ups in fighting in and around the Strait of Hormuz since a ceasefire began a month ago, and the United Arab Emirates came under renewed attack on Friday.

Israel carried out strikes across Lebanon on Saturday, killing at least nine people in the south according to authorities, with raids also targeting a highway not far from Beirut outside of Hezbollah's traditional strongholds.

The fresh attacks were some of the most intense since the start of a three-week-old ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah that has done little to halt daily exchanges of fire, mostly in southern Lebanon.

By Matt Spetalnick and Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON, May 9 (Reuters) - With his decision to pull some U.S. troops from Germany, his threats to draw down forces elsewhere in Europe and his downplaying of Iran’s recent attacks on an important Gulf partner, President Donald Trump's latest moves foreshadow what could be the war's enduring legacy: the fraying of ties with key allies.