LAST UPDATE | 28 Feb

THE DEATH TOLL from an attack on a school in Iran’s south has risen to 85, local officials have said, after the US and Israel launched strikes on the Islamic republic.

“The number of martyrs at the girls’ school in Minab has increased to 85,” the judiciary’s Mizan Online website quoted the area’s prosecutor’s office as saying.

Shajare Tayyebeh Elementary School is in the southern Iranian province of Hormozgan near the strategic sea route of the Strait of Hormuz.

A number of people were also wounded in the alleged strike in Hormozgan province, with some trapped under the rubble of the building.

A provincial official said Israeli strikes hit the school, according to state media.

The reported deaths are the latest in the region after the United States and Israel began its attack on Iran this morning. Iran has retaliated and four deaths were reported in Syria as the result of an Iranian missile attack, with one further death reported in Abu Dhabi.

In a statement published on social media, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) said it had “prepared for this with an operational plan developed over months”.

“Thousands of hours of intensive intelligence work at Military Intelligence’s target factory, which succeeded in multiplying the number of targets by hundreds of percent, so that Israel is prepared to strike in Iran as much as required,” it said.

The IDF said the US and Israeli militaries had conducted “close and joint planning” in the months preceding the strike.

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian condemned what he described as a “barbaric” attack on the school in the country’s south.

“This barbaric act is another black page in the record of countless crimes committed by the aggressors,” said Pezeshkian in a statement this afternoon.

Iran retaliation

Explosions were reported across major Gulf cities today as Iran launched waves of retaliatory missile attacks following the US and Israeli strikes, fuelling fears of a wider regional conflict.

Missiles were seen streaking across the sky, with several intercepted by air defence systems.

Smoke was reported near US military bases in Abu Dhabi and Manama, home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, while debris killed a Pakistani civilian in the UAE capital, authorities said.

Four people were wounded in the incident on the Palm, Dubai’s media office said, while loud explosions were heard in the city throughout the day and evening.

Visuals of fire and smoke from the Fairmont Hotel on Dubai's Palm Street#USIran #IsraelIranWar #IsraelIranConflict #USIsraelIran pic.twitter.com/fcCunIVg94

— CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18News) February 28, 2026

Qatar, which hosts the region’s largest US military base at Al Udeid, was heavily targeted, along with Riyadh, eastern Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

The UAE, Qatar and Kuwait temporarily closed their airspace.

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The UAE described the strikes as a “blatant attack” and a “dangerous escalation”, saying its air defences intercepted multiple missiles.

Saudi Arabia condemned what it called “unjustified aggression” and said it reserved the right to respond.

In Kuwait, a missile strike damaged the runway of an air base hosting Italian personnel, while a drone hit Kuwait International Airport, causing minor injuries.

For residents of the Gulf, long regarded as one of the Middle East’s most stable regions, the attacks sparked shock and fear.

“I heard the explosions, I don’t know what I felt,” a Lebanese woman living in Riyadh told AFP.

“We came to the Gulf because it’s known to be safer than Lebanon. Now I don’t know what to do or how to think really.”

Additional reporting from AFP