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DUBAI — A week of Israeli strikes has upended the lives of Iranians, battering vital infrastructure like fuel depots, airports and public buildings, and shaking the population's confidence that it could remain insulated from conflicts in the wider Middle East.
Now, an even more destructive phase of the conflict could loom.
"People are terrified. They don't know exactly what is happening," said Alireza, a 40-year-old man from northern Tehran who decided to flee the capital this week. On his way out of Tehran, he said, he encountered chaotic scenes of bumper-to-bumper traffic. Once outside the city, he saw a thick layer of smoke from the airstrikes hanging over the skyline.
Inside Tehran, people described in interviews a daily struggle for basic needs. Electricity and water are still available, but cuts have become more frequent. Food prices have soared, cash is in short supply, and the wait for fuel can be up to five hours at some gas stations. Some of the Iranians interviewed spoke on the condition that only their first names be published while others spoke on the condition of anonymity, fearing retaliation from the regime.
As at other moments of crisis, Iranian authorities have responded by clamping down. The government, for instance, has imposed a near-total blackout of the internet, and the country has been disconnected from the global internet since the middle of this week, according to NetBlocks, a monitoring group that tracks internet outages.
While the blackout may be designed to prevent Israel from exploiting the internet for intelligence and military targeting, the loss of communications has compounded people's anxiety as they struggle to reach family members and friends, and to share information about what places remain safe, Iranians said. With residents cut off from one another and the outside world, rumors have become rampant.
Iran has previously restricted internet access during times of upheaval such as nationwide protests. As before, Iranian officials are encouraging people to use Iranian government messaging apps that still work, but the platforms are less secure and probably allow the government access to any information sent over them. Amir Rashidi, an internet security and digital rights activist, said most people he knows inside Iran have previously refused to use the government apps, but this time is different.
"Out of desperation, people are moving into these platforms. I never saw this," he said. "Every single time in previous internet shutdowns, people would launch a campaign to say: 'Don't join those platforms.' But now, it's completely opposite."
Iranian security forces have also erected additional checkpoints on roads and, in some neighborhoods, deployed more plainclothes officers, Iranians said. This heightened security presence signals that the government remains in control, but many residents say the additional forces are menacing.
Niusha, 30, a personal trainer from west of Tehran, said "thugs" appear in the streets during unsettled times to "scare people."
She said a friend was beaten by a group of men in plain clothes while taking video of the aftermath of an airstrike. "Three motorcyclists attacked her, took her phone away, deleted its memory and pushed her against a water canal," Niusha said. "They were shouting things like 'Zionist spy' when they were pulling and hitting her." The friend remains in the hospital, she said.
Iranian authorities have announced the arrests of dozens of people accused of spying for Israel after reports emerged that it had covert teams on the ground in support of the initial wave of attacks, including by using drones to damage Iranian missile launchers.
Immediately after the initial Israeli attacks, Iranian state television focused on their impact, but by the end of this week, broadcasts were promoting the line that ordinary life inside Iran was continuing. "Who says there is shortage of bread?" asked a woman in a supermarket interviewed by a state media reporter. "I just bought five loaves. But I won't buy more either. There will be bread tomorrow, too."
"The system is trying to show that it's functioning and has capacity, and that's very important to push back against the psychological messages of regime change," said Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East program at Chatham House, a British think tank. "That's important for internal cohesion. We are by no means at a point where law and order is breaking down, but of course, there are challenges."
Vakil described the Israeli attacks that killed four members of Iran's senior-most military leadership in the space of a day as "a shock" to the system but one the regime will probably survive.
Many senior Iranian officials have gone into hiding but remain defiant. Unable to make a public address, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, recorded a video to declare "the Iranian nation is not one to surrender."
"Oftentimes people underestimate the Iranian system's governance structure," Vakil said. "It's institutional, and there is a massive bureaucracy underneath the supreme leader that is made up of ordinary and oftentimes nonideological people that are just doing their jobs."
Arash Azizi, an Iranian author based in the United States, said there's a heightened sense of national unity even among people who describe themselves as anti-regime activists. "There is a real solidarity. Solidarity for the aid workers, for people killed, and even for the soldiers killed, the air defense workers. Because at the end of the day, they're all in this together," he said.
But Azizi said this solidarity does not reflect greater support for the ruling system. "I don't think they're supporting the regime. I think they're actually blaming the war on the regime, but they're helping each other."
Iranian officials are promoting this sense of solidarity. Speaking on state television Friday, parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf urged, "Today, all people from all walks of life and groups, even those who may not accept the Islamic republic, stand up and defend our beloved Iran."
Saba, a 42-year-old university professor who resides just outside Tehran, said that after living through a week of conflict, she feels a deep sense of injustice.
"What exactly are the United States and Israel expecting the Islamic republic to do right now? I mean, yes, this regime is pretty ideological, stubborn and irrational, and they won't negotiate for peace. But what the heck do they expect them to do? I don't understand," she said.
Saba said she has strongly supported anti-government protests in the past but, unlike some other Iranians, has not welcomed the Israeli strikes or threats to violently remove Iran's leadership.
"I was not happy from the beginning. Yes, some people were. But I knew that nothing good has ever come out of a war," she said.
Now, Saba said she is terrified that the United States could enter the conflict. "I am so scared of all the suffering that I know is going to come after this," she said.
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