Fear stalks Tehran as Israel bombards, shelters fill up and communicating grows harder
To stay, or to go?
The Associated Press interviewed five people in Iran and one Iranian American in the U.S. over the phone. All spoke either on the condition of anonymity or only allowed their first names to be used, for fear of retribution from the state against them or their families.
Most of the calls ended abruptly and within minutes, cutting off conversations as people grew nervous — or because the connection dropped. Iran's government has acknowledged disrupting internet access. It says it's to protect the country, though that has blocked average Iranians from getting information from the outside world.
Iranians in the diaspora wait anxiously for news from relatives. One, an Iranian American human rights researcher in the U.S., said he last heard from relatives when some were trying to flee Tehran earlier in the week. He believes that lack of gas and traffic prevented them from leaving.
The most heartbreaking interaction, he said, was when his older cousins — with whom he grew up in Iran — told him 'we don't know where to go. If we die, we die.'
'Their sense was just despair,' he said.
Some families have made the decision to split up.
A 23-year-old Afghan refugee who has lived in Iran for four years said he stayed behind in Tehran but sent his wife and newborn son out of the city after a strike Monday hit a nearby pharmacy.
'It was a very bad shock for them,' he said.
Some, like Shirin, said fleeing was not an option. The apartment buildings in Tehran are towering and dense. Her father has Alzheimer's and needs an ambulance to move. Her mother's severe arthritis would make even a short trip extremely painful.
Still, hoping escape might be possible, she spent the last several days trying to gather their medications. Her brother waited at a gas station until 3 a.m., only to be turned away when the fuel ran out. As of Monday, gas was being rationed to under 20 liters (5 gallons) per driver at stations across Iran after an Israeli strike set fire to the world's largest gas field.
Some people, like Arshia, said they are just tired.
'I don't want to go in traffic for 40 hours, 30 hours, 20 hours, just to get to somewhere that might get bombed eventually,' he said.
The 22-year-old has been staying in the house with his parents since the initial Israeli strike. He said his once-lively neighborhood of Saadat Abad in northwestern Tehran is now a ghost town. Schools are closed. Very few people even step outside to walk their dogs. Most local stores have run out of drinking water and cooking oil. Others closed.
Still, Arshia said the prospect of finding a new place is too daunting.
'We don't have the resources to leave at the moment,' he said.
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