It began with radar screens lighting up over western Iran just before sunrise on February 28, 2026. Precision strikes hit air-defense batteries, command centers, and suspected nuclear and missile facilities almost simultaneously. Tehran called it an act of naked aggression. Washington and Jerusalem called it preemption. On social media, it had only one name: the night everything changed.
Iran’s response was swift and furious. Missiles rained toward U.S. bases and Israeli cities, while proxy militias from Iraq to Lebanon opened new fronts. Tankers diverted from the Strait of Hormuz, prices spiked, and nervous governments rushed emergency statements that calmed no one. Twenty‑four days later, ceasefire talks stumble, funerals multiply, and families on every side live under the same dread: that the next siren, the next flash in the sky, will be the one that takes everything.