On February 28th, 2026, the United States and Israel bombed Iran. But how did this all start? At first, the USA and Iran supported each other for a while. In 1953, the U.S helped kick out a popular Iranian leader, Mohammad Mossadegh, to keep the Shah (a title of the former monarch of Iran) in power. Then, in 1979, protesters overthrew the Shah (Mohammad Reza Pahlavi). They did this because during the Cold War, he helped America, and the people of Iran saw him as a United States puppet. All of this led to Iran being hostile to the United States due to these events. After the Shah’s overthrow, Iran kept 52 Americans hostage for over a year. Since then, the Iranian people also wanted a “shield” to protect themselves from the US.
Now you may be wondering, “How the John does bombing of Iran have to do with Israel?” Israel and Iran have their own long history of fights and threats to each other. Israel also had involvement with Iran in 1979. After the Iranian Revolution, the new leader, Khomeini, took charge, and the government took a strong dislike to Israel, openly expressing how they opposed it. They also support groups that fight Israel, for example, Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis, and numerous others. Israel has always feared Iran’s nuclear capabilities. Over the span of 33 whole years, the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, has warned, “In recent months, the tyrants in Iran have been plotting to rebuild their nuclear and missile capabilities and to bury them underground, where we cannot reach them. If we do not stop them now, they will become invulnerable.” When Israel bombed Iran, they called it a preemptive strike (a surprise military action launched against an enemy to thwart an imminent attack rather than waiting to be attacked first).
Why are they deciding to do all of this now? In Iran, before all of these attacks, there have been many protests, resulting in 3,117 confirmed deaths (according to the Iranian government). But in reality, it’s a lot more, with it being stated by protesters, human rights groups, and hospitals that around 16k-30k people have died. People began protesting due to poor governance, high inflation, long-term problems such as water shortages and pollution, the government’s spending more on security than on the country itself, and widespread corruption throughout the government system. At the peak of the protests, the Iranian government took away the people’s internet, leaving them unable to communicate with anyone outside of the country.
As of this writing, the news has reported that 1,200 to 1,300 people have been killed. One of the buildings the United States has bombed has been a girls’ elementary school in Minab, which killed 168 to 180 people, many of whom were children. The United States has spent roughly 10 billion dollars on the attack on Iran. In response, Iran has started using cluster bombs on Israeli population centers. Cluster bombs are a war crime; attacking civilians is a war crime. So far, Iran has bombed Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq, and many more, including Dubai. This shows that Iran is not messing around. They have also bombed several United States military bases in the Middle East. On February 28, 2026, the Supreme Leader of Iran died in Tehran during an attack carried out by Israel with American support.
How does this affect you? President Trump said, “Some people will die. When you go to war, some people will die.” Gas prices will increase because of the fact that Iran is the third largest producer of natural gas. They stated on X (formerly Twitter) that they would attack and set ablaze any ship attempting to cross their territory with the plan to sell gas to the USA. This will increase gas prices, military costs, and delivery costs because gas costs more. Gas prices have jumped roughly 60 cents a gallon over the past month.
