Special correspondent, BBC Persian
Xinhua/ShutterstockFear and stress can be seen in my sister’s voice in Tehran, despite the crackling, intermittent WhatsApp connection, which – in a miraculous way – still works from time to time.
Clarity is what she wants from me because I know that I am a journalist at the BBC in London.
“What will happen? What should we do?” She asks. US President Donald Trump said that people in Tehran should evacuate. “Is he serious?”
Since Thursday evening, Tehran has been repeated by Israeli aircraft that seem to fly freely over the sky of the capital. They are fulfilled by air defense fire, to the most part.
From your window on the upper floors of a high -rise building, my sister can clearly see the campaign, which does little to calm her nerves.
The Israeli military has ordered people in their district – expand in all directions over several kilometers – to evacuate. But she has decided to stay.
She told me that, as far as she knew, there was no military goals near her apartment block.
Nevertheless, she was concerned about a nearby commercial unit – as she believed, from the revolutionary guards – which could be a goal. She had no idea what the company actually did.
Many people do not know who their neighbors are or whether there are military goals nearby, since a large part of the activities of the revolutionary guards are secretly and from hidden locations.
EPAElectricity and water are still available in many parts of the capital, but the food supply is not enough.
Many shops are closed and more close their doors. Even bakeries close – some due to a lack of flour, others probably because the owners have fled.
My sister refused to leave the city, in contrast to the hundreds of thousands – perhaps millions – who already have, especially because it cannot go anywhere.
Despite the stem packed streets and pegs, many residents have fled in the past few days.
The streets of Tehran, once with traffic, are now incredibly quiet.
Those who hardly dare and fear attacks.
The latest reports indicate that the long queues have started at petrol stations, and the streets from the capital are less overloaded.
Residents who live near the country’s nuclear facilities face the additional fear of the spread of radioactive contamination, since these locations have been repeatedly targeted by Israeli strikes in the past few days.
So far, the global nuclear guard has said that radioactivity outside of two locations that were attacked and damaged on Friday remain unchanged.
People ask where all this will lead and how long it will take.
Many now rely on Persian -speaking television channels based abroad to get messages.
BBC Persian’s TV service and his website have become key sources. Iran’s web traffic has doubled almost overnight, although the Internet slowly slowed down most of the time.
Trump asked Iran, but the Iranian top guide Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has just said that Iran will not arise.
Only a few Iranians sympathize with the regime, but many fear that chaos and lawlessness could follow if it is significantly destabilized.
