Israel attacks Iran: Tehrans residents fearful and angry after strikes

At roughly 3:30am the first Israeli missiles rained down across the Iranian capital Tehran.

"Both my husband and I were thrown from our bed. The explosions didn’t stop. We had no idea what was happening," said Samira, a resident of the northern Tehran neighbourhood of Kamranieh.

The windows of the entire apartment had shattered and the chandelier had crashed to the floor.

"We got up from the ground in fear and realised the apartment across from ours had been bombed," she told Middle East Eye.

Samira - not her real name - lives directly opposite the residence of Ali Shamkhani, an advisor to Iran’s Supreme Leader, who was among the senior Iranian officials reportedly killed in Israeli air strikes oi the early hours of Friday morning.

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Describing her survival as a "miracle," she said the dining table in her living room was blown to
pieces by the force of the blast.

Soon after, the sound of warning sirens and emergency vehicles rushing to extinguish fires could be heard resonating across the city.

Shamkhani was Tehran's representative at talks with the US over a new deal to limit Iran's nuclear capabilities and ease tensions in the region.

His death - which the Iranian government is yet to confirm - alongside the deaths of senior figures in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), senior military leaders, scientists and countless civilians, has obliterated hopes for a diplomatic solution.

Now Israel is saying that its operations against Iran, which have heavily targeted its nuclear facilities and reportedly killed 78 people in Tehran alone, could last for more than two weeks.

The most brutal attack to hit the capital since the end of the Iran-Iraq war in 1988 has left the city's residents reeling, angry and fearful of what could come next.

Panic and fear

Bahram, a 45-year-old architect living in the Pasdaran neighborhood in northeastern Tehran,
was also jolted awake by the blasts.

He lives near the Shahid Rajaei complex, one of the main targets of the Israeli strikes.

At first, he thought the sound was thunder, but when the explosions continued, he got out of
bed and saw smoke rising from the window.

“I stepped onto the balcony, and the entire area smelled of gunpowder,” he said.

Friday's attacks are not the first targeting the capital in the past year.

In July 2024, Israel killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh after attending the swearing-in of Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian in Tehran. Middle East Eye reported that witnesses believed Haniyeh was killed by a projectile fired at a guesthouse controlled by the IRGC.

'I stepped onto the balcony, and the entire area smelled of gunpowder'

- Bahram, Tehran resident

But Friday's attacks have marked a severe escalation, excarbated by their open-endedness.

Danial, 39, lives in the Marzdaran district in western Tehran - another area reportedly targeted by Israel.

He says he woke up in shock from multiple blasts, disoriented and frightened.

“All the car windows on my street were shattered,” he said.

"And the tires had blown out.”

Just hours after the strikes, panicked residents rushed to petrol stations to fill up.Unprecedented lines formed across fuel stations in the capital.

The mix of anger, confusion, and uncertainty was etched on the faces of locals. Some, however, are hoping the attacks will remain limited to military and official targets.

Mixed feelings

The Israeli and Iranian governments have been enemies for a long time, with both regularly threatening the other regimes' destruction.

Among ordinary Iranians, however, views are somewhat more mixed - while some are angry at Israel over its attacks on Iranian soil, others are critical of the Iranian government, which has become increasingly unpopular over a mix of heavy-handed repression, economic failure and corruption.

“Finally, someone took revenge on these criminals,” said 21-year-old Mahsa, a university student.

“Things can’t get worse than they already are. We’ve suffered so much. Let it be done with - death once, mourning once. Whatever happens, it can’t be worse than this.”

'Finally, someone took revenge on these criminals'

- Mahsa, student

41-year-old Farzaneh, who works in sales at a private auto parts company, said that while she was "scared and worried" she also wanted to "stay hopeful."

"Hopeful that in a not-so-distant future, we can live freely and peacefully without cruel people
like those who rule over us now," she explained.

The war on Gaza, which began in October 2023, has had a polarising effect on a lot of Iranians. 

While the government and much of the populace has been supportive of the Palestinians, some opposed to the Islamic Republic are sympathetic to Israel and its opposition to a regime they see as a tyranny.

Danial, for his part though said Israel "only understands force."

"It’s naive to think this will be the end of it," he said .

"They’ve attacked our land, and they must be answered with decisive force.”

Until 'there is nothing left'

The sense of optimism that had permeated Iran after the signing of the 2015 nuclear deal is a distant memory.

In his latest comments on the Truth Social network on Friday afternoon, US President Donald Trump warned that Iran should sign a new deal with the US before Israel launched further attacks and "there is nothing left" of the country.

Ryan Costello, Policy Director with National Iranian American Council, told MEE that prospects for a new deal were looking bleak.

"While we hope that the war will not spread out of control, Iran will not negotiate a nuclear deal when under active bombardment," he said.

"Diplomatic efforts need to pivot to ending the bombing and keeping the US out of the war. Unfortunately, Trump's initial remarks after the strikes do not seem grounded in that reality, and risk ensuring the US is a target in any reprisals."

Iranian officials have vowed a “strong and unforgettable” retaliation against Israel, already having launched around 100 (largely intercepted) drones on Friday.

The scale of that response - and Israel’s counter-response - will likely shape the lives of tens of millions of people, both inside Iran and across the Middle East, and Tehran's residents are waiting with bated breath.

middleeasteye.net