Loud explosions were heard across the Gulf cities of Dubai, Doha and Manama on Monday as Tehran pressed into a third day of strikes against Gulf neighbours in response to US-Israeli strikes.
Blasts were also heard in Jerusalem, with the IDF saying defence systems were operating to intercept missiles.
This comes as Brits trapped in the UAE’s most populous city are awaiting evacuation, after 94,000 British citizens vacationing in the hotspot registered their contact details with the foreign office.
A host of celebrities who have moved to Dubai have shared terrified updates after getting caught up in the 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.
Kate took to Instagram on Sunday to provide an update on their whereabouts and reassured fans they were safe after a ‘very scary night’.
Debris is seen at the bottom of a damaged building after an Israeli airstrike in Beirut’s southern suburb neighborhood of Haret Hreik on March 2
A fire is seen in a damaged building after an Israeli airstrike in Beirut’s southern suburb neighborhood of Haret Hreik on March 2
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.
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.
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.
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
Foreign Secretary 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 is a breaking news story. More to follow.
