A large explosion struck Iran's capital, Tehran, on Friday at a square filled with demonstrators, Iranian state television reported.

The explosion hit Ferdowsi Square, just down Enghelab Street from Tehran University, the epicenter of ongoing Quds, or Jerusalem, Day demonstrations.

The Israeli military says it is dropping charges against five soldiers who were accused of sexually abusing a Palestinian detainee in a purported assault partially caught on camera.

It's a bombshell development in a case that has divided Israel ever since the country moved to arrest the soldiers at the Sde Teiman military prison, which was set up to hold Palestinians rounded up in Gaza during Israel's war against the Hamas militant group, in 2024.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said Thursday that the leverage of closing the Strait of Hormuz should be used and that Iran's attacks on Gulf Arab neighbors will continue.

His first statement since his appointment was read on state television by a news anchor. Khamenei did not appear on camera, and an Israeli assessment indicates he was wounded in the war's opening salvo.

Israeli strikes targeted Thursday several towns in south Lebanon including Haris, Kafra, Alma al-Shaab-Naqoura, Deir Ntar, Barish, Yater, Qantara, Qaaqaiyyet al-Jesser, Teffahta, Qana, al-Sultanieh, Taybeh, Qabrikha and Kfardounin.

In east Lebanon, Israeli strikes targeted Qsarnaba and Douris after warning residents to evacuate.

Unrelenting Iranian attacks on shipping traffic and energy infrastructure pushed oil above $100 a barrel Thursday, as American and Israeli strikes pounded the Islamic Republic with no sign of an end to the war in sight.

Iran hit a container ship off the coast of Dubai, caused a blaze near Bahrain's international airport, targeted a major Saudi oil field with a drone and forced Iraq to halt operations at all of its oil terminals after attacking its port of Basra on the Persian Gulf.

U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher called this “a moment of grave peril for Lebanon and for the region,” as the conflict disrupts markets, supply chains and aid operations.

The European Union has given Lebanon 100 million euros ($115 million) in humanitarian support, said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday in a call with President Joseph Aoun.

The International Energy Agency agreed Wednesday to release the largest volume of emergency oil reserves in its history, in a bid to counter the effects on energy markets of the war in the Middle East.

The Paris-based organization said it will make 400 million barrels of oil available from its members' emergency reserves. It's a larger stock than the 182.7 million barrels that were released in 2022 by the IEA's 32 member countries in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The Iranian women's soccer team left Australia without seven squad members after tearful protests of their departure outside Sydney Airport and frantic final efforts inside the terminal by Australian officials, who sought to ensure the women understood they were being offered asylum.

As the team's flight time drew nearer and they passed through security late Tuesday, each woman was taken aside to meet alone with officials who explained through interpreters that they could choose not to return to Iran.

The rising prices causing winces of pain at gasoline pumps are due, in large part, to the impact of the Iran war on the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial passageway for oil and gas from the Persian Gulf. The narrow waterway off Iran's coast, now effectively closed by the war, is so vital for the global economy that governments are working on blueprints to speedily reopen it to shipping when the shooting stops.

In Europe, French President Emmanuel Macron is leading an international effort to unblock the energy chokepoint, so oil, gas and goods could flow freely again "when circumstances permit." He envisages countries using warships to escort tankers and container vessels through the strait when fighting is no longer raging so intensely, whenever that maybe.