Tehran is in shock – and we fled with heavy hearts | News Israel-Iran Conflict

Gilan, Iran – The prospect of the war seemed to be closer to the reality every day that passes, but perhaps that few millions of people who were forced to abandon their homes through Iran last week – including myself – could have known that this new reality would impose itself so hard or suddenly.

The first explosions woke up in Tehran shortly after 3 am on June 13, when a large number of Israeli fighter and drone planes attacked dozens of areas across the country and explosives quadcopters And the anti-fortification advanced guided missiles were launched by Israeli agents inside Iran.

Whole residential buildings have been leveled in the capital, military sites and air defense batteries have been targeted, and above -ground installations supporting nuclear enrichment rooms buried deep inside the Natanz mountains in Isfahan province were bombed. Dozens of civilians have been killed, as are a large number of best military commanders and nuclear scientists.

Tehran was in shock First morning after attacksWhile people had trouble treating terrifying news and assessing their options while the authorities rushed to set up a concerted response to surprise successes.

While the attacks appeared on Friday morning – the last day of the weekend in Iran – most of the city streets were strangely silent the next day, with the exception of those where the Israeli bombs had had an impact.

Soon, however, the queues of several hours had been formed in almost all the combustible centers of the sprawling capital, which has nearly 10 million inhabitants and holds more than 15 million during the busy work days, while millions of people also go to neighboring cities like Karaj.

I went out to visit some of the targeted sites in the west of Tehran: several houses had been destroyed in the Patrice Lumumba district, several floors of a 15-storey building providing accommodation for university professors had sold to Saadat Abad and the adjacent buildings were damaged, while the first two floors of another residential building had been completely exhausted in Marzdaran. All were Successful targeted assassinations – including several high -level nuclear scientists – and many civilians have also been killed.

Later in the evening, the Iran’s armed forces began to launch hundreds of missiles and drones in Israel in retaliation. Almost a week, at least 16 laps of Iranian strikes were launched, without immediate end in sight because Tehran says that he will continue to fight back as long as Israel attacks. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump teasing triggers a total regional war By entering the war directly alongside Israel, which he and the Washington Western allies already support advanced ammunition, a massive fleet of supply aircraft and intelligence efforts.

During the next few days, Israeli attacks knew through Tehran and the country during the day, terrorizing civilians who saw smoke and heard explosions approaching their homes or their workplaces. At the house and the office of Tehran d’Al Jazeera, I heard many explosive impacts, some of the closest at around 2 km (1.2 thousand).

Most of Tehran was closed after Israeli attacks intensified, and the streets and service stations were more crowded than ever after Israel and Trump told people to evacuate immediately. The government said that metro stations and mosques had been opened as shelters 24 hours a day because it has not built any dedicated shelters or proposing clear security protocols, despite the still present war threat.

Monday, after three days of evaluation of the situation, my family and I decided to join the countless others who had already leaned Tehran.

After having rushed with precipitation of the clothes and some personal effects in a suitcase, I led from my own place at my girlfriend to pick her up around 4 p.m. His parents, who work in health care, had to stay in Tehran that day, but they have since left, after the intensification of Israeli air strikes in their neighborhood.

We then picked up my mother – with our four cats who stayed with her – from her house in the west of Tehran, near a big road that comes out of the capital.

The Israeli bombs fell on several areas in the west of Tehran while we rush to grasp the cats and put them in their boxes.

The undoubted sounds of the explosions, which leave a disgusting and flowing sensation in your stomach, no matter how many times you hear them, only added to the emergency – especially since the Israeli army had issued a new threat of evacuation at the same time and then bombed the headquarters of state television.

Run away

We left Tehran with heavy hearts, not knowing when we could come back. The buildings were already mainly empty of residents.

The feeling that we do not return to the same intact districts was inevitable, just like the terror that we feel for those who wanted to leave but could not, that it is because they treat a member of the sick family or because they simply could not afford it. Iran The sick economy has been trained Under the weight of years of local mismanagement and American sanctions.

The trip to the North, which usually takes about four hours, took nearly 12. Highways were a sea of ​​vehicles filled with families, animals and personal effects. The guests on the roadside and the service zones have filled with people who did not know when or how they could come back. Many have followed the news of the latest air strikes with concern.

Near our destination in northern Iran, the control points set up by the armed and masked security forces have aggravated traffic. They stopped vehicles, mainly vans, because this is what was used by Israeli agents to pass explosive quadcopters and other weapons inside Iran.

I write this in a small but dynamic town in the province of Gilan in northern Iran. The northern provinces, including Mazandaran and Golestan, are the place where Most Iranians have chosen to go there. They are relatively close to Tehran, have much fewer places that could be potential targets for the Israeli army, and were already popular travel destinations with a large number of hotels that many previously visited.

Many here have also opened their homes to displaced people from other provinces. Six million people have entered the Mazandaran only since last week, according to the deputy chief of the Iranian police, Qasem Rezaei.

The authorities are trying to reassure the population, in particular the Iranians who fled to the northern provinces, that the government is no problem meeting their basic needs, in particular food and fuel.

But in the meantime, 90 million Iranians have been thrown into a state of uncertainty, frustration and anger while trying to maintain the hope of a semblance of normal life when the country is not constantly threatened with military action or isolated from the international community.

For ordinary civilians, the situation is seriously aggravated by the fact that they were completely cut off from the Internet for days, the Netblocks of the Internet Observatory confirming on Friday that 97% of the country’s connectivity was down. With less than a handful of small daily updates from state media or local sources, Iranians have little idea of ​​the extent of Israeli military strikes across the country.

The Iranian authorities began to impose restrictions on the Internet from the first day of Israeli strikes, but increased them while Israel has widened its offensive group and a pro-Israeli hacking group also launched cyber attacks.

Several of the best banks in the country have been removed from the sequel to cyber attacks, as well as from the first Iranian cryptocurrency exchange, Nobitex, who said that his “hot portfolio” had been compromised but promised that he would make any money lost.

Iranian officials, who also put the country offline during the mortal National protests in November 2019said the disconnection of the Internet was necessary to postpone Israeli quadcopters and other projectiles, but has not given any calendar when they restore complete connectivity.

Iran already has one of the most closed and slower internet connections in the world, because almost all the main global messaging applications and other services, as well as tens of thousands of websites, are blocked and only accessible through bypass solutions such as virtual private networks (VPN).

If you read this now, it means that I have managed to find a barely functional connection to send it.