Dubai Faces New Turmoil as Iran Escalates Attacks with Latest Explosions

On Monday, the Gulf cities of Dubai, Doha, and Manama were rocked by loud explosions as Tehran continued its barrage of strikes against neighboring Gulf nations for a third consecutive day, retaliating against US-Israeli military actions.

In Jerusalem, similar disturbances echoed through the city, with the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) reporting that defense systems were actively working to intercept incoming missiles.

In Kuwait, several US warplanes met with unfortunate crashes, though, thankfully, officials confirmed that all crew members survived these incidents.

Meanwhile, thousands of British tourists in Dubai, the UAE’s bustling metropolis, are anxiously awaiting evacuation. Following the escalation, around 94,000 UK nationals on holiday in the area have registered their contact details with the foreign office for safety updates and assistance.

The situation has also unsettled numerous celebrities residing in Dubai, who have taken to social media to share their distressing experiences amid the ongoing air attacks.

Branding it the ‘scariest, worst nights of our lives’, many spoke of how scared they were hearing the constant bangs overhead, while sheltering in their homes as the strikes rage on across the UAE.

While reassuring their followers that they are currently ‘safe’ as the air defence systems intercept the vast majority of incoming missiles and drones, they implored how scary it was to listen to the explosions all night long.

Former TOWIE star Kate Ferdinand and ex Apprentice candidate Luisa Zissman revealed they slept in the basement of their Dubai homes with their children as missile strikes hit the city on Saturday night.

A black plume of smoke rises from a warehouse at the industrial area of Sharjah City in the United Arab Emirates

A cyclist rides past as black plume of smoke is seen rising from a warehouse at the industrial area of Sharjah City in the United Arab Emirates

Kate took to Instagram on Sunday to provide an update on their whereabouts and reassured fans they were safe after a ‘very scary night’. 

 She wrote: ‘Thank you for all of your messages and sorry for the silence, I haven’t wanted to worry you all I just haven’t been able to find the words. We are safe.

‘The government are doing an amazing job of keeping it that way and despite my nerves I feel we are in very safe hands.

Meanwhile, ex-footballer Alan Rogers shared a video on Monday morning from Dubai where loud booms can be heard in the distance.

Now, officials are planning to evacuate hundreds of Britons are fires rage on across the Gulf.

It came as Keir Starmer agreed to a US request to use British military bases to hit Iranian missile sites.

The Prime Minister said: ‘Our partners in the Gulf have asked us to do more to defend them, and it’s my duty to protect British lives. This is in line with international law and we are publishing a summary of our legal advice.’

Sir Keir added: ‘We all remember the mistakes of Iraq and we have learned those lessons. We were not involved in the initial strikes on Iran and we will not join offensive action now. But Iran is pursuing a scorched-earth strategy so we are supporting the collective self-defence of our allies and our people in the region.’

With 94,000 already registering with the Foreign Office, hundreds of thousands are expected to follow suit, and ministers are understood to be drawing up contingency plans to evacuate them over land to Saudi Arabia from the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar.

UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said today there are around 300,000 British citizens in Gulf countries targeted by Iran, who have targeted hotels with their attack drones.

Cooper said: ‘We are setting up the support systems because as well as the 94,000 people who have been in touch when we set up the “register your presence” system, there’s an estimated 300,000 British citizens in Gulf countries that have now been targeted by Iran, including countries where now airspace is closed as a result of those attacks.’

‘So we’re saying to people, the most important thing at the moment is to follow the local advice.’ 

 Countries across the Gulf scrambled to close their airspaces as the US and Israel launched a co-ordinated attack on Iranian targets over the weekend, followed by retaliatory drone and missile strikes across the Middle East. 

Travel plans were plunged into chaos after airports in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Kuwait were hit, killing at least one person and injuring 11.

Nearly 6,000 flights have been cancelled globally and almost 30,000 delayed since the conflict broke out, according to flight-tracking website Flightradar24. It marks one of the biggest disruptions to travel since the pandemic.

In the UK, 24 of the 56 flights that were due to depart from Heathrow to the Middle East on Saturday were cancelled.

The Government’s advice for most people in the region is to stay put. Evacuation plans will be enacted only if it becomes clear that the airspace will remain closed for a prolonged period.

The Foreign Office urged British nationals in Bahrain, Israel, Palestine, Qatar and the UAE to register online so they can be kept up to date.

‘If you are a British national in those countries, you should shelter in place and register your presence,’ it said in a post on X.

The scale of the operation is unprecedented, with the ‘register your presence’ scheme never having handled so many people.

Stranded passengers wait near Emirates Airways customer service office at I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport after flights to Doha, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi were cancelled

A missile launched from Iran is pictured in the sky from the Bureij camp for Palestinian refugees in the central Gaza Strip on March 1

Yvette Cooper is leading the scheme and has spoken to UK ambassadors from the region to discuss the plans.

All options are said to be on the table, including one that involves stranded Britons travelling by road to Saudi Arabia, from where they could return home.

Officials are in talks with regional airlines, including Emirates, Qatar and Etihad, to help with the evacuation. It could become the biggest mass evacuation in a generation, after several thousand British citizens were evacuated last summer after tit-for-tat missile strikes between Israel and Iran.

This comes as the President of Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulides, said on Monday that an Iranian drone had crashed into a British base on the Mediterranean island.

Minutes after midnight (10pm UK time), ‘a Shahed unmanned aerial vehicle crashed into the military facilities of the British Bases in Akrotiri, causing minor material damage’, he said.

‘We are in a region of particular geopolitical instability with many challenges and problems, which is going through an unprecedented crisis.

Our homeland does not participate in any way and does not intend to be part of any military operation.’

Meanwhile, Iran has now vowed it will never surrender as it rejected an ultimatum from Donald Trump to lay down its weapons.

Trump told Iran’s leaders to give up the fight which has exploded across the Middle East, with missiles raining down on Israel, Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE, and on American military bases in the region.

A total of 555 people have been killed across Iran since the start of the strikes that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other senior leaders, the Iranian Red Crescent said Monday.

Israel’s rescue services said nine people were killed and 28 wounded in a strike that hit a synagogue in the central town of Beit Shemesh, bringing the overall death toll in the country to 11. Another 11 people were still missing after the strike, police said. 

‘These intolerable threats will not continue any longer. I once again urge the Revolutionary Guard, the Iranian military police, to lay down your arms and receive full immunity or face certain death,’ Trump said. 

He urged the Iranian people to rise up and overthrow the Islamic regime. ‘Be brave, be bold, be heroic and take back your country,’ he said. 

‘We’re undertaking this massive operation not merely to ensure security for our own time and place, but for our children and their children, just as our ancestors have done for us many, many years ago,’ the President said. 

But Iranian national security official Ali Larijani confirmed the country will not negotiate with the US. 

Meanwhile, Israel, which had pledged ‘nonstop’ strikes, said it was intensifying its assault, with 100 fighter jets simultaneously hitting targets in Tehran, Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin told reporters. 

A smoke plume rises following a missile strike on a building in Tehran on March 1, 2026

This US Navy handout photo released by US Central Command public affairs shows US sailors as they taxi aircraft to a staging point on the flight deck of Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) in support of Operation Epic Fury, at an undisclosed location on 

The targets included buildings belonging to Iran’s air force, its missile command and its internal security force, which violently quashed anti-government protests in January.

The US military, meanwhile, said B-2 stealth bombers struck Iran’s ballistic missile facilities with 2,000-pound bombs.

Trump said on social media that nine Iranian warships had been sunk and that the Iranian navy’s headquarters had been ‘largely destroyed.’

He also vowed to ‘avenge’ the three US troops killed in the conflict, calling the service members ‘true American patriots who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation, even as we continue the righteous mission for which they gave their lives.’

Meanwhile, The US embassy in Bahrain has issued a chilling warning that ‘terrorist groups’ are planning to attack American citizens in the Gulf state.

In a statement, officials have warned Americans in the country to avoid hotels in Manama as they could be targeted.

It reads: ‘Terrorist groups continue plotting possible attacks in Bahrain. Terrorists may attack with little or no warning’.

Britain, France and Germany said they were ready to work with the US to help stop Iran’s attacks, in a sign the conflict risked drawing in further nations.

Leaders of the countries said in a joint statement that they were ‘appalled’ by Iran´s ‘reckless’ strikes on their allies.