On the morning of February 28, 2026, a conflict that had been building for years finally erupted with devastating force. The United States and Israel launched coordinated surprise airstrikes against multiple locations across Iran, setting off a chain of events that has since reshaped the balance of power in the Middle East, rattled global energy markets, and sent shockwaves through every corner of the international community. As of today, March 23, 2026 — day 24 of the conflict — the fighting shows no clear sign of stopping, and the human cost on all sides continues to rise.
This is a factual account of what happened, how it escalated, and where things stand now.
The road to war did not begin on February 28. The tensions between the United States, Israel, and Iran had been building steadily since 2023, punctuated by a series of missile exchanges in 2024 and a brief but intense twelve-day military confrontation in June 2025 that significantly damaged Iran’s nuclear infrastructure. By January 2026, Iran was facing enormous internal pressure as well. A wave of mass protests — described by observers as the largest since the Iranian Revolution — was met with a violent crackdown by Iranian security forces, in which thousands of demonstrators were killed. The response from Washington was swift and firm. President Donald Trump threatened military action and authorized the largest American military buildup in the region since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
In mid-February, there was a brief moment of hope. Diplomatic talks between the United States and Iran resumed, and on February 25, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi declared that a historic agreement to avert military conflict was within reach. Just days earlier, Oman’s Foreign Minister had confirmed that Iran had agreed in principle to never stockpile enriched uranium and to allow full verification by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Peace, it seemed, was possible.
It did not happen.
On February 28, while negotiations were still technically underway, American and Israeli forces launched Operation Epic Fury — a massive coordinated strike campaign targeting missile infrastructure, military installations, nuclear facilities, and senior leadership across Iran. The opening strikes killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in an attack on his compound in Tehran. Iranian state media confirmed his death on March 1. The country’s 86-year-old spiritual leader, who had held power since 1989, was gone. The shock was immediate and profound, both inside Iran and across the world.
Iran’s response was swift and broad. Within hours of the opening strikes, Tehran launched hundreds of ballistic missiles and drones toward Israel and toward United States military bases spread across the Middle East — in Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. Iran also struck civilian and commercial infrastructure in several neighboring countries and moved to close the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most critical maritime passages through which a significant portion of global oil flows.
The regional spillover was immediate. Dubai International Airport, one of the busiest in the world, was damaged by drone strikes and temporarily shut down. Qatar’s key liquefied natural gas facility at Ras Laffan was hit, cutting roughly 17 percent of its output. Global oil and gas prices surged. Flights across the Middle East were grounded. Financial markets around the world registered sharp volatility.
American and Israeli forces continued their operations in the days that followed, striking thousands of targets across Iran. By March 21, United States Central Command reported that more than 8,000 military targets had been struck during the operation — including naval vessels, missile launchers, air defense systems, and military command structures. More than 50 Iranian naval ships were reported sunk. The Iranian navy’s frigate IRIS Dena was sunk in the Indian Ocean by a United States Navy submarine. Iran’s ballistic missile launch rate declined steadily in the early days of the war, with analysts pointing to the destruction of a large proportion of Iranian missile launchers and storage facilities.
The human cost has been staggering on all sides.
According to independent monitoring organization HRANA, more than 3,100 people had been killed in Iran by March 17, including over 1,300 confirmed civilians. Iran’s own Deputy Health Minister reported at least 1,255 deaths, including more than 200 children, and over 12,000 wounded, with 29 medical facilities damaged and 10 forced to shut entirely. One of the deadliest single incidents of the conflict occurred in the southeastern city of Minab, where a strike on an elementary school killed more than 170 people, the vast majority of them children. The World Health Organization confirmed that at least 18 hospitals and healthcare facilities had been struck across Iran.
On the Israeli side, Iran launched nine separate salvoes of missiles at Israel over the course of the conflict, targeting cities including Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Dimona, Arad, Beersheba, and Eilat. Israel’s sophisticated air defense system intercepted the majority of incoming threats, but some broke through. On March 1, nine Israeli civilians were killed in a strike on a residential neighborhood in Beit Shemesh. Missile debris and cluster munitions caused widespread damage across central and northern Israel. On March 21 and 22, Iranian ballistic missiles struck the cities of Dimona and Arad in southern Israel — the most dramatic escalation yet, targeting a region near Israel’s nuclear research center. More than 100 people were wounded in those two strikes. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the damage site in Dimona personally.
The United States has also suffered losses. Thirteen American service members were confirmed killed by Iranian attacks across the region. In addition, six crew members died when a United States refueling aircraft crashed in western Iraq on March 13. President Trump, acknowledging the deaths early in the conflict, stated that more American casualties would likely follow.
Beyond the battlefield, the conflict has drawn in a remarkable number of other actors. Hezbollah resumed hostilities against Israel from Lebanon, launching missiles and drones at Israeli forces in the north, and Israel responded with heavy airstrikes, displacing nearly one million people in Lebanon and pushing the death toll there above 1,000 people, including more than 100 children. Bahrain’s air defenses intercepted and destroyed a reported 143 missiles and 242 drones fired by Iran over the course of the war. Saudi Arabia shot down dozens of Iranian drones targeting its territory. A ballistic missile from Iran entered Turkish airspace and landed in the Hatay province, triggering urgent consultations within NATO about the invocation of collective defense obligations.
Iran also struck further afield. Two ballistic missiles were fired at the United States-United Kingdom joint military base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer had authorized the use of British bases by American forces for strikes on Iranian missile sites, a decision that Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi warned would make the United Kingdom a direct participant in the conflict.
The international reaction has been sharply divided. The United Nations Secretary-General and numerous uninvolved countries condemned the initial American and Israeli strikes as violations of international law and Iranian sovereignty. Spain refused to allow the United States to use its air bases, prompting threats of trade retaliation from Washington. Critics, including legal scholars and international relations experts, have described the opening attack as illegal under both American domestic law and international norms.
Within the United States, Congress has begun pressing the administration for an exit strategy. Trump sent mixed signals in the third week of the conflict, simultaneously suggesting that the war might be “winding down” while threatening to expand it further — declaring in a post on Truth Social that the United States would strike and destroy Iran’s power plants if Tehran did not fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours.
As of today, the Strait of Hormuz situation remains a critical flashpoint. Iran has declared the waterway closed to shipping linked to countries it considers hostile, and the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency has rated the threat level across the Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz, and the Gulf of Oman as critical. Twenty-one confirmed attacks on commercial vessels and offshore infrastructure have taken place since March 1.
The questions hanging over the conflict are profound and, as yet, unanswered. What comes next for Iran’s leadership, with Khamenei dead and the country under sustained bombardment? Can the Strait of Hormuz be reopened without further escalation? Will Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen, and Iranian-backed militias in Iraq broaden the war further? And how does this conflict — launched, critics say, while negotiations were still actively underway — ultimately end?
What is certain is that the 2026 war between the United States, Israel, and Iran has already changed the Middle East in ways that will take years, perhaps decades, to fully understand. The human suffering it has caused — on all sides, across multiple countries, among soldiers and civilians alike, including thousands of children — demands that the world pay close and honest attention to what is actually happening, rather than to the conflicting claims of any single party.
The conflict is still unfolding. The truth, as always, matters.