Sara Elsherbiny was preparing to celebrate her birthday by breaking her Ramadan fast with friends at a restaurant in Dubai. Instead, as the sun set on Feb. 28, explosions echoed nearby, rattling her home and shaking the city. “It was loud, actually the house shook, and that was the first time that we’ve experienced something like that,” Elsherbiny told Jattvibe News. In a different part of the city, Ali and his wife were also breaking fast on the same day — the 11th day of Ramadan. He recalled watching missiles streak across the sky. “We broke our fast normally but the Ramadan vibes were no longer there,” he said. “We were worried about further escalations.”Hours earlier, the United States and Israel had launched strikes on Iran, prompting retaliatory Iranian attacks across the region.Follow along for live coverage. With Ramadan coming to an end and Eid al-Fitr starting, what is typically a time of celebration and communal prayer has been upended across the Middle East, as ongoing strikes reshape one of the holiest periods for Muslims. The region’s residents, some of whom declined to use their full names or spoke to Jattvibe News on the condition of anonymity for safety reasons — described their most surreal and frightening moments of the past month. An elderly woman is helped from the scene of an airstrike on a residential building in central Tehran, Iran.Getty ImagesPeople shop at Tajrish Bazaar in northern Tehran ahead of Nowruz, marking the Persian New Year, and Eid al-Fitr.Fatemeh Bahrami / Anadolu via Getty ImagesAcross the region, Muslims say the rhythms of daily life during the holy month — from communal iftar meals to late-night gatherings and Eid preparations — have been disrupted by air raid alerts, displacement and the threat of aerial attacks. Too close to homeFor some, the war has collided with deeply personal moments.A Dubai-based media professional, who did not want to be identified, said she went into labor Feb. 28 as explosions sounded across the city.“We didn’t know what to do, shall we go to the hospital or call an ambulance?” she said.She and her husband ultimately drove to a nearby hospital, where doctors assured her she was safe. But as she was being prepared for an epidural, phones in the room blared a warning alert urging people to stay indoors and away from windows due to a missile threat.“My body was shaking,” she said.Others have come face to face with the terror of war. Samah, an entrepreneur who runs an entertainment business out of a Dubai warehouse, said an explosion hit about 1.2 miles away while she was at work. “I never imagined that one day I would hear these kinds of sounds and feel that my life, my family, my cats and the country I have called home since I was young could be threatened,” she said. “It really feels like a nightmare.”Samah said she later learned that debris from the explosion hit a car, killing its driver. “I kept thinking that I was only a short distance away from death, yet somehow I survived and was given another day to live,” she said. “That thought stayed with me and made the whole experience feel even more real and heavy.”A region on edgeSince the start of the war, more than 2,000 people have been killed across the Middle East. In Iran, Israeli and American strikes have killed more than 1,200 people, according to the Iranian Red Crescent Society. At least 1,000 people have been killed in Lebanon, and eight have been killed in the United Arab Emirates, according to local officials. Retaliatory strikes killed 15 civilians and two military personnel in Israel. Thirteen U.S. service members were killed in combat, while three died of noncombat causes