The last day of “normal”
Weekend, finally Saturday (28/02/26). We decided to visit the zoo (Dubai Safari Park) again, the kids wanted to go there for a while now. Of course we knew about the tensions, in particular my husband has been monitoring the situation as closely as he could. Still, we thought Saturday would not be the day, and, more importantly, Iran would not retaliate against UAE. UAE would stay out of “it”, just like last time.
On the way to the zoo the news: Israel and the US launched a preemptive strike on Iran.
Side note here: Preemptive strike?
Is there any justification to preventatively launch an attack?
Imagine your kids: one hits the other. When asked why he or she did this the answer is: “the other one was about to hit me, so I hit first” – how would you react?
At first just we were casually checking the news, find out which news outlet knows what etc. We were trying to keep it normal for the kids, to not be on the phone constantly. Next was airspace closure, this was actually nice because there were less planes above Safari Park.
Then the shock: Iran attacked Abu Dhabi. From casually checking to constantly checking within a second: what would happen next? Still trying to keep it normal for the kids, to have family time, getting a lot more difficult though. Meanwhile messaging family “we are safe and at the zoo” is one of the weirdest messages I have ever sent.
How quickly things unfold beyond your own imagination…
Three waves of attack on Saturday. The third with interceptions partially above our heads during dinner at home. Sheltering in the guest bathroom, letting the kids watch a tv show while we discussed where we will sleep in the house seems absurd – it was reality.
Our house has large windows, so what to do? In the end, we used all mattresses to “barricade” the windows of the master bedroom and slept all together in our bed. Of course, it was way past bedtime…