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Tehran, Iran – The highways leading to Tehran are again occupied, filled with cars carrying families, suitcases and the prudent hope that the house could finally be safe. After 12 days of war which killed more than 600 Iranians and moved hundreds of thousands of the capital, a cease-fire announced on Monday began to bring residents back to a city still marked by Israeli air strikes.
For a lot of return to Tehran, the relief of sleeping in their own bed is tempered by the constant fear that the bombardment can resume at any time.
“Returning home after all these days, even from a place where you had physical security, looks like a paradise,” said Nika, a 33-year-old graphic designer who spent almost two weeks with her husband with their loved ones in Zanjan, about 286 kilometers (177 miles) northwest of the capital. “But I don’t know if the cease-fire will last or not,” she said.
The conflict that upset millions of lives began at dawn on June 13, when Israeli war planes launched what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described a preventive strike against Iran’s nuclear installations. What followed was an unprecedented exchange of fire between the two regional powers that brought direct war to the heart of Tehran for the first time in decades.
While the Israeli attacks on residential areas have intensified and the warnings of American and Israeli officials to evacuate Tehran have become stronger, many residents, fearing for their lives, were forced to flee the capital for the relative security of other cities and villages.
For many residents of Tehran, the abandonment of their lives was a decision that has a decision.
“I had an incredibly busy life before the war,” said Saba, a 26 -year -old university student. “I lived in Tehran, I had a full -time job, I was studying, and since I lived alone, I succeeded in all my household chores. When the war started, for a few days, I could not believe that this routine stopped.
On the fifth day, the war forced him to leave.
“First of all, my university exams were postponed, then my workplace told us to work from a distance, and one by one, all my friends left Tehran. I felt terrible solitude, ”she recalls. “I took care of myself during the day, but at night, when the bombing and aerial defenses sounds started, I couldn’t go wrong.”
Unable to obtain a car, her father led from his hometown of Quchan, a city near Mashhad in northeast Iran, to bring it to the family, where she stayed until the ceasefire.
“The nights were unbearable”
According to the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education, at least 610 people were killed and 1,481 injured during the conflict, more than 90% of the victims being civilians.
“At the start, I decided to stay in Tehran and operate the business,” said Kamran, a businessman and CEO of a private company in the capital, who asked for anonymity due to security problems. “There were bombings and the sound of air defense, but life was managed during the day. The nights, however, were really unbearable,” said the father of two children.
Many fled the city in the very first days of war. At that time, two major obstacles tormented their departure: the long queues in the service stations made it difficult to obtain enough fuel for the trip, and the main ways of exit from the city were smothered with intense circulation of the volume of cars trying to go out.
Now, since the ceasefire was declared, many of those who had abandoned Tehran started to return.
“After 11 days of life in a place where there was no sign of war, but was not at home – no intimacy, no peace of mind – coming back to my own house was like paradise,” said Nika.
“After years to be used to the silence of my own house, lasting life with 11 other people in an environment that has never been calm was incredibly difficult,” she said. She returned to her two-bedroom apartment in Tehran as soon as the ceasefire was declared.
“I don’t know if the ceasefire will last or not,” admitted Nika. “But even if this is not the case, I don’t think I want to leave my house.”
Uncertain future
Not everyone had the chance to go back to an intact house.
Keyvan Sket, a renowned Iranian musician, had learned that his house was struck by an Israeli missile while he is away with his family in a neighboring city. However, the call of his neighbor delivering the dark news did not prevent him from rushing after the declaration of the ceasefire.
According to Saket, one of the bombs drawn from his residence has not exploded, a blow of fortune that spared destruction. But that prevented him from him and his family from entering their homes due to security problems. “Once the problem is resolved and that we were authorized inside, we faced a disturbing scene,” he said. “The doors and windows have been broken, the facade of the building has been erased and household appliances such as the washing machine and the refrigerator have been seriously damaged. The attack was so intense that even the iron doors of the building were mutilated. ”
Saket’s voice wore deep pain as he thought about the conflict assessment. “With each fiber of my being, I despise the war and those who Allow him,” he said, shifting the loss of a house he cherished. “War is the ugliest of human creations.”
Since the ceasefire has entered into force, the two parties have accused each other of violations and the fear of renewing violence has been raised. Iran reported continuous Israeli attacks for several hours after the agreement, while Israel claims to have intercepted Iranian missiles after the stay. In the aftermath of the announcement of the ceasefire, the strikes continued on both sides, the Israeli forces reaching targets in Tehran, including the notorious Evin prison and the Iranian missiles hitting areas in Israel.
Hamed, a student in political science, thinks that the situation is precarious. “It looks like me a recurring nightmare,” he said. He had returned from the Southeast Iranian city of Kerman, where he was moved, the day the ceasefire was announced, but feared that he no longer had to abandon his house and his life. “I really don’t want to have to pack my things and leave my house without knowing when, or if, I can come back.”
Despite this underlying anxiety, the streets of Tehran are visibly more busy than before the ceasefire. While companies put an end to their distant working policies and recall employees, there is evidence of a careful return and determined for life in the capital.
Damage to infrastructure in Tehran was important, with attacks hitting several provinces, notably Alborz, eastern Azerbaijan, Isfahan, Fars, Kermanshah and the capital itself. The Israeli army claimed to have reached more than 100 targets across Iran during the 12 -day conflict.
At the beginning of the mornings, the buzzing of traffic once again in the large boulevards of Tehran. “Seeing the others return to the city next to me, watching cafes and restaurants reopen and feeling life flowing in the streets – it really raises my heart,” said Saba, shiny eyes with cautious optimism. However, while the city stirred to life, the shadow of an uncertain ceasefire is looming, a silent recall that this fragile renewal could be tested at any time.
This play was published in collaboration with Egab.
