Iran’s attacks targeting other Middle Eastern countries have killed civilian workers from across the region and beyond and spurred widespread condemnation after the regime targeted nonmilitary sites in its conflict with Israel and the United States.
Since the fighting began in late February 2026, Iran’s attacks have put civilians, including foreign nationals in service industry jobs, at risk. Iran has fired hundreds of missiles and drones at Gulf countries, killing at least a dozen civilians in those states, including 11 foreign nationals, as of early March, The New York Times newspaper reported.
Foreign nationals working in civilian roles are protected persons under international humanitarian law.
Iran has fired at residential areas, energy and water infrastructure, and vessels seeking to transit the Strait of Hormuz, a vital route for global oil supplies. The attacks continued even after Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian purportedly apologized to neighboring countries subjected to Tehran’s strikes. Pezeshkian later backtracked, saying on social media that Iran had not attacked its neighbors but had “targeted U.S. military bases, facilities and installations in the region.”
Legal experts note, however, that a state’s assertions about its intended targets do not negate responsibility for civilian harm.
The day after Pezeshkian’s reversal, an Iranian drone attack damaged a water desalination plant in Bahrain. Then in mid-March “a blatant Iranian attack targeting a residential building in Manama” killed a 29-year-old woman and injured eight people, Bahrain’s Interior Ministry stated. The woman was the first Gulf state civilian killed. Iran also has attacked Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Migrant workers are crucial to the Middle East economy, accounting for over 40% of the region’s labor force, the world’s highest proportion, Bloomberg News reported. Foreign nationals are more likely to have jobs that require them to continue working instead of sheltering, such as sanitation, food service or delivery roles, The New York Times reported.
Civilian deaths include an 11-year-old Iranian girl living in Kuwait who was killed when shrapnel fell on her home, according to reports. Two Bangladeshis working as cleaners died when a military projectile fell on a residential area in Saudia Arabia, the kingdom’s civil defense authority said. The incident injured 11 other Bangladeshis and an Indian migrant worker.
In Tel Aviv, Israel, a Filipino caregiver died after being hit by shrapnel while trying to help her elderly patient reach a bomb shelter, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said.
The UAE, meanwhile, reported the deaths of three people from Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan, according to Bloomberg.
“For more than a week, whenever there is a blast or a missile interception, we rush outside our labor camps or workplaces to try to save ourselves, but we don’t know what to do or where to hide,” a Pakistani worker in Dubai told The New York Times.