‘In the middle of the crossfire’: the story of a Brazilian woman in Dubai during the Iranian attacks

She said she broke two bones in the fall Personal archive It’s been two nights since marketing director Yasmin Castro has barely been able to sleep. She traveled to Dubai for work with a group of Brazilians and was taken by surprise by the attack by the United States and Israel against Iran on Saturday (28/2). Despite not being in any of the three countries directly involved in the conflict, she says she frequently hears the sounds of bombs and messages that the UAE government sends to the cell phones of those in the region to warn that the city is being attacked. “It’s a very different noise. It’s loud, but it’s kind of muffled, and we’ve seen it arrive in series: once, twice, three times in a row. But we can’t explain it, because we’ve never heard it before,” she tells BBC News Brasil via videoconference. Along with her husband, Yasmin is, as she says, “in the middle of the crossfire”. The ultimate symbol of contemporary luxury, Dubai, which has become home to many influencers and celebrities in recent years, has been attacked by Iran for housing American military personnel. One of its ports, Jebel Ali, receives ships from the United States Navy, for example. Dubai has not recorded any deaths, but has already reported four injuries. They were employees of the city’s airport, which was damaged by Iranian attacks and remains closed this Monday (2/3). The Brazilian says that, when the conflict began, she was in Abu Dhabi, an emirate that has suffered more aggressive attacks — to the south, the city is home to the Al Dhafra air base, which houses American Air Force aircraft and anti-missile defense systems. Abu Dhabi also had its airport, the second busiest in the world, targeted by Iran. One person died near the site after being hit by debris from a drone. Yasmin says that she discovered the war not through television, radio or social media, like most Brazilians, but through the noise she heard as soon as she arrived at a restaurant for lunch after a go-kart race. Upon seeing the windows shake, his group abandoned the lunch and helicopter ride they had scheduled for the afternoon and decided to immediately return to Dubai, their base in the region. They sought help at the hotel where they are staying, which improvised a kind of bunker in the building’s parking lot, from where, she says, the feeling of security is greater, as you can’t hear anything. Fear, however, still prevails. “When the alarm went off, I was afraid we were going to suffer an attack. It was very scary, because the alarm that rings on your cell phone, the siren, scares you even more. It feels like a bomb is going to fall on your head at any moment,” she says. See the moment when a luxury hotel in Dubai is hit by Iranian retaliation ‘Brazilians are more scared’ Until Sunday (1/3), the United Arab Emirates was hit by 67 missiles and 541 Iranian drones, of which 35 could not be blocked and resulted in three deaths, according to the local government’s Ministry of Defense. The marketing director says that all the events and meetings she had in Dubai ended up cancelled, as well as tourism plans in her spare time, but she says that she sees this fear more on the part of Brazilians, unaccustomed to conflicts like this, than on tourists of other nationalities or residents of the region. “Only Brazilians went down underground. There was even a couple who weren’t Brazilian and two Russian women, who were with a little baby, but only a small group went down. You can see that the Brazilians are more scared than other people, so much so that the hotel pool is full. The city is even a little emptier, but a lot of people are living normally”, she says. Marketing director Yasmin Castro, who is in Dubai with no plans to return to Brazil due to the conflict between Iran and the USA and Israel Personal file Yasmin says she believes that the rest may not share the same fear because she believes in the capacity of the anti-aircraft defense system, capable of intercepting missiles, aircraft and drones at a distance of up to 160 kilometers from cities such as Dubai and Abu Dhabi, financial centers in the region and also highly sought after by tourists. “When it started, we were afraid of the attacks, but the people at the hotel reassured us a lot. They have a lot of trust in the defense system, so we are a little calmer. We saw the number of missiles and drones that were intercepted, so we trust too.” Return to Brazil remains uncertain The presence of Brazilians in the region, in fact, is constant. In 2023, 183,000 tourists from the country visited the United Arab Emirates, an increase of 46.4% compared to the previous year, according to the local government. There are dozens of direct long-haul flights that connect the two countries monthly, operated by companies such as Emirates and Qatar Airways from the airports of Guarulhos, in Greater São Paulo, and Galeão, in Rio de Janeiro. At the moment, however, all are inoperative. As of Monday afternoon, there was no forecast for the reopening of Dubai airport. Yasmin says that her flight back to São Paulo should take place next Saturday (7/3), but it is still uncertain whether it will be possible to travel. “The biggest concern is no longer the attacks. It’s being trapped here. We know that this could happen. We believe that the airport will not open until the 7th”, he says. “Even if the airport opens, there will be a lot of demand from people who should have left before and didn’t. We don’t even know if we can catch flights, but as soon as the airport opens we’ll want to leave.” When asked if she plans to return to the region to carry out plans that were not possible this time, Yasmin is divided. “My husband even told us to come back calmly and meet, but I never want to again. I know we’ll probably go back, but it’s a strange feeling. I’m very anxious, and just knowing that I’m in the crossfire gives me agony.” ‘Panic and despair’ in Dubai and Abu Dhabi: how cities that symbolize luxury and security were ‘dragged’ into conflict with Iran Months of planning and last-minute decisions: behind the scenes of the attack that killed Iran’s leader, Ali Khamenei Who is in charge of Iran after the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei?

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