So what caused it? Iran hasn't said.
Israeli broadcaster N12 says it was a US strike on an Iranian air defence system. No Iranian official has confirmed that. No American official has confirmed that either.
That's everything we know.
Why this mattersQeshm Island sits right inside the Strait of Hormuz. A quarter of the world's oil passes through that strait. So anything that happens on this island gets read as a message to every country that ships oil through it.
And this comes in the middle of a long, on-off war.
America and Iran have been fighting, on and off, for eight months now. Earlier this month America bombed several Iranian targets. Since then there's been a rough ceasefire. But both sides keep reporting drone activity and defensive moves.
Earlier the same day, Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they shot down an American MQ-9 drone east of the strait. They also said they captured two smaller American reconnaissance drones south of Qeshm Island. Nobody has said whether any of that connects to the later explosions.
It also comes two days after a tanker was hit by two unidentified projectiles near Saudi Arabia's Ras Al Khafji port. And it comes hours after US Central Command said Iranian attacks have killed more than 20 civilian mariners in recent months. Central Command called that Iranian aggression indiscriminate.
But here's the thing. Iran has been talking to America at the same time.
Iran's deputy foreign minister went to Doha today for Qatar-mediated talks. A foreign ministry official there says quote "the ball is in the US court".
Reports say Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has been pushing Donald Trump to strike Iran again once the midterm elections are over. Trump, by these reports, wanted to let negotiations run a bit longer first. Reports also say Trump told reporters earlier today that he would not strike Iran after the midterms. And they say Vice President JD Vance said the US has made progress with Iran and has not set a deadline to resume strikes. None of that is confirmed beyond one report each.
So here's the contradiction. If America did carry out tonight's strike, that's the first confirmed US action against Iran in 62 days. And it happened hours after Trump said, in public, that he wouldn't do exactly this.
Iran hasn't said whether it believes it was attacked. It hasn't blamed anyone. It hasn't said how it might respond.
And nobody has confirmed what those two aircraft were, what got hit, or whether anyone was hurt.
