US-Iran war as it happened: One Iranian soccer player reverses asylum decision and will return to Iran; Ships targeted in Strait of Hormuz; ACCC investigates petrol price gouging

Thank you for reading our rolling coverage of the Israeli-US war on Iran and its impacts throughout the world.

This live blog has closed, but our coverage continues here.

Here’s a recap of today’s biggest stories.

• One member of the Iranian women’s soccer team who accepted a humanitarian visa to stay in Australia has changed her mind and sought to return to Iran, said Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke. That means a total of six Iranians have accepted the government’s offer to remain in Australia. While waiting to board a flight leaving Australia last night, several players interviewed by this masthead – flanked by chaperones – said they wanted to return home to be with their families.
• Speculation remained over the health of Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, after the son of Iran’s president said, “he is healthy and there is no problem”. This is contrary to references in state media that Khamenei was wounded in the war, and reports that he was injured in the initial US-Israeli strike.
• Three cargo ships have been attacked in the Strait of Hormuz today, as Iran vows to control the major oil choke point despite threats from US President Donald Trump.
• Two Iranian drones have struck near Dubai International Airport and wounded four people, though flights continue, officials say. The attack caused “minor injuries to two Ghanaian nationals and one Bangladeshi national, and moderate injuries to one Indian national,” the city-state’s government said.
• Israel’s attacks on Lebanon are causing a widening humanitarian crisis. Almost 700,000 people have been displaced since the latest Israeli incursion across Lebanon’s southern border. Strikes across the country killed 14, Lebanon’s health ministry said. An apartment in Beirut was also struck, terrifying residents.
• The Australian dollar has emerged as an unlikely haven, buoyed by elevated oil and gas prices and growing bets that the central bank may raise interest rates as early as next week. The Aussie climbed to its highest level since June 2022 – US71.68¢ – and reached more than a 35-year high against the yen, making it the top-performing major currency this year.

Pope Leo has lamented the death of numerous civilians in the ongoing Iran war and also expressed closeness to people in Lebanon, saying the country, targeted by Israeli strikes, was going through a “great trial.”

Leo, the first US pope, called on pilgrims in his weekly audience in St. Peter’s Square to pray for peace.

“Let us continue to pray for peace in Iran, and throughout the Middle East, especially for the many civilian victims, including many innocent children,” he said.

Reuters

The images from the Gold Coast will stay with us: Iranian female footballers on a bus, pressing the international SOS hand signal against the windows.

Filming the crowd through the glass. At least one player crying as security guards escorted her aboard. Hundreds of Iranian-Australians surrounding the vehicle, lying in front of it, chanting: “Save our girls.” These women were fighting to be seen. And the world saw them.

It started on March 2, when the Iranian women’s national football team refused to sing the Islamic Republic’s anthem before their opening Asian Cup match against South Korea. State television branded them traitors.

Then the security handlers who had accompanied the squad did what the Islamic Republic always does: they applied pressure through harassment.

Australia offered humanitarian visas to the entire squad. That mattered. But democratic governments must understand something about how the Islamic Republic operates. It controls people through fear, through threats to families, through handlers and surveillance and coercion.

Read the full story here.

Israeli strikes on eastern and southern Lebanon have killed 14 people and wounded more than two dozen, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said.

The ministry said seven were killed and 11 wounded in a strike on the southern village of Chehabiyeh, while seven were killed and 18 wounded in a separate strike on the village of Tamnine el-Tahta in the eastern Bekaa valley.

It did not give further details but the state news agency said the strike on Tamnine el-Tahta hit a home where a Syrian family lived. A local resident said the area struck was a small concrete block factory.

Israeli’s air force also carried out three airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs.

The strikes on the suburb of Haret Hreik and nearby areas came after the military warned that it would attack several buildings in the area.

Israel has also ordered reinforcements to its northern border with Lebanon.

AP, Reuters

An Israeli airstrike hit an apartment building in a residential area in central Beirut, injuring four people, Lebanon’s health ministry said.

Our Europe correspondent, David Crowe, and chief photojournalist Kate Geraghty are at the scene, where locals are distraught at the shocking attack.

Iran will target economic and banking ​interests linked to the US ‌and Israel in the region, a spokesperson for the ​Khatam al Anbia joint ​command said, ⁠adding this threat follows ​an attack on an Iranian ​bank.

“Following their failed campaign, the terrorist US army and cruel Zionist ​regime [Israel] have targeted ​one of the country’s banks,” state ‌media ⁠quoted Ebrahim Zolfaqari as saying.

“With this illegitimate and uncommon action, the enemy is ​forcing ​our hand ⁠to target economic centres and banks ​linked to the US ​and ⁠Zionist regime in the region.”

The spokesperson warned people ⁠in ​the region to ​stay away from banks.

Reuters

We’re seeing the anguish among the residents of Beirut who have woken to the sound of missile strikes next door. One woman is shaking as she stops briefly to talk in Arabic about how she feels.

Her lips tremble and she rubs her eyes, and then holds her hands up towards the damaged apartment building in disbelief. She lives on the other side of the target building – luckily, not the side hit by the airstrike.

Her daughter is staying with her and her son has returned to Beirut, and she worries about them both. Our local colleague here tells me what she is saying, but I don’t need a translation to understand the message: “This is terrifying.”

We are in the Aisha Bakkar district of Beirut, close to the sea. It is a Sunni Muslim area and not part of the southern district of Beirut from which Israeli forces have told people to evacuate.

As with a drone strike on Sunday, this attack is bringing the war to a suburb where people thought they might be safe.

Beirut: We’re at the site of the latest Israeli missile strike in Beirut, where the street is littered with broken concrete and at least 20 cars are damaged outside an apartment building struck in the night.

One of the greatest fears this morning was that an unexploded missile lay in the rubble. At the same time, a crowd of more than 100 people gathered in the street – some of them media, but many of them local people.

Lebanese authorities tried to secure the site to keep people away from the danger, with mixed success.

The unexploded missile has been loaded onto a white SUV — a Dodge RAM — and the vehicle has moved slowly down the street. An electricity crew are up a telegraph pole, trying to secure the power to minimise the risks.