Mumbai, March 2 – Bollywood actress Soha Ali Khan has issued a heartfelt plea for peace as tensions escalate sharply between Israel and Iran, with growing concerns over the impact on civilians caught in the conflict.
Soha posted on her Instagram stories, writing about "quieter skies and healing."
She wrote: "There is no alternative to peace. My thoughts and prayers are with the children and innocent civilians. May tomorrow bring quieter skies and healing."
The escalation occurred on February 28, when massive explosions rocked Tehran after Israel launched what it described as "preventive" missile strikes against Iran, dramatically escalating tensions in the region.
The strikes came amid heightened tensions between the United States and Iran over a potential nuclear agreement and growing fears of a wider military confrontation in the Middle East. Several missiles hit areas along University Street and in the Jomhouri district of the Iranian capital.
Over the course of 2024 and 2025, a long-standing shadow conflict between Israel and Iran escalated into a series of unprecedented direct military confrontations, including major aerial strikes and reciprocal missile attacks, marking a dangerous shift from indirect hostilities to overt warfare.
Earlier on Monday, Israeli warplanes carried out intensive airstrikes in Beirut's southern suburbs, hours after rockets were fired from Lebanese territory toward Israel, according to local television channel al-Jadeed.
The Israeli strikes targeted Dahieh, a Hezbollah stronghold in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, prompting residents to flee their homes amid fears of further escalation, according to the report. Ambulances rushed to the affected areas to evacuate casualties. No official toll was immediately available, Xinhua news agency reported.
Lebanon's Hezbollah group said in a statement that it had launched rockets and drones toward Israel in retaliation for the Saturday killing of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in joint Israeli-US strikes on Iran.