“I’m Afraid a Bomb Will Kill Me in My Sleep”: Iranians React to Israel’s Attacks

On June 13, Israel launched a surprise attack on Iran. Airstrikes hit buildings across the capital, Tehran, striking residential neighborhoods as well as military sites. In just one night, close to 100 people were killed. Among the dead were dozens killed while asleep in their beds.

The attack came after eight months of calm, with not a single shot fired between Iran and Israel. Prior to the assault, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, had given his blessing for peace talks with the United States. Over this past weekend, Donald Trump’s representatives were due to meet with their Iranian counterparts to work on hashing out a deal.

And then, in the dead of night as Iranians lay asleep at home, Israel attacked.

For Iranians like Kamyar, a 29-year-old engineer living in Tehran, the massive assault came as a shock.

“I was asleep when my aunt called. There was a big explosion near her house; all her windows had shattered. She was in panic,” Kamyar told Truthout. “I opened the blinds to look out my window. I saw a flash and bang. Suddenly, all around me, I could hear explosions. The earth was shaking. That’s when I realized we were under attack.”

The New York Times and other Western media repeated the Israeli military’s line — that Israel was attacking Iran’s nuclear program. But as the sun rose over the Iranian capital, it immediately became clear that the strikes had hit residential buildings. Multiple floors of skyscrapers were blown out in Kamranieh and Nobonyad, neighborhoods on the northeast side of the city. Entire buildings were levelled in Sattarkhan, on the west side.

Videos emerged of sobbing families on the street in front of their homes, mourning loved ones killed in the strikes. Men with hands over their faces, shrieking in grief.

Israel boasted that it had killed several commanders of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and nuclear scientists.

It also killed their families, and dozens of people who happened to live in the apartments around them. Among the dead were Amir Ali Amini, a 11-year-old taekwondo champion; Niloufar Qalehvand, a Pilates instructor; and Ehsan Eshraghi, a bank teller, and his 9-year-old daughter Baran.

As the death toll rose, shock waves went out across the Iranian capital.

“The first missiles hit just as I was saying my morning prayers,” Yasamin, a 35-year-old English teacher, told me over the phone. As she spoke, the ringing of Israeli drones in Tehran’s sky was audible. “Later, my mother found out her friend’s apartment had been bombed. Her two children were killed in bed by the attack. Everyone on the floor below them was wounded.”

“My mother found out her friend’s apartment had been bombed. Her two children were killed in bed by the attack. Everyone on the floor below them was wounded.”

“My mother has been sick ever since she heard the news,” she said, holding back tears. “We’re paralyzed in fear. I’m afraid that a bomb will kill me in my sleep.”

In the days since, Israel has bombed Iran repeatedly, with each round often only a few hours apart. This has included missile strikes on civilian infrastructure including fuel depots, oil refineries, and airports. On June 15, car bombs were detonated in downtown Tehran.

Towers across the city have had their tops blown out. Ambulances race to locate survivors in collapsed buildings.

Every morning, crowds emerge to help the wounded, digging people out from below the rubble. Others wander in a daze, shocked by how quickly their lives have turned upside down.

The last time missile barrages fell on Tehran was 1988, when Saddam Hussein was bombing the country in a war where he received Western support. That same year, a U.S. aircraft carrier shot down an Iranian airliner flying from Tehran to Dubai over the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 people aboard.

In the decades since, the city has experienced relative peace. While Israel had threatened Iran with war repeatedly, recently many hoped that Trump would fulfill his promise to avoid a new Middle East war. The shock of the sudden attack was compounded by the hope many Iranians felt about the peace process.

“Until a few months ago, it seemed like our government would refuse to negotiate with Trump,” Kamyar told me. “But then they agreed, and things were moving forward. We were optimistic. And then Israel attacked us right in the middle of the negotiations.”

This wasn’t the first time Iranians had been burned by the U.S. In 2015, Iran and the U.S. under the Obama administration signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a nuclear deal that provided a framework for peace between the two countries. Iran complied with the deal. But three years later during his first term, Trump ripped it up.

Iranians put their faith in diplomacy. And then the United States betrayed its promises.

“The Worst Night of My Life”

Iran has launched several missile barrages against Israel in retaliation. The majority were shot down by Israel’s Iron Dome, but several missiles hit military installations in the heart of Tel Aviv, as well as residential areas.

Some hoped the retaliation could act as a deterrent, pushing Israel to stop.

But Israel has since hit back harder across Iran. Airstrikes targeted dozens of cities, border posts, nuclear sites, military bases, and the homes of ordinary people.

“They say Israel has the right to defend itself — but they attacked us first.”

“Friday night was the worst night of my life. There were drones everywhere flying super low. I can’t think of a reason why they sent them except to terrify ordinary people,” Samira, a 48-year-old journalist, told me over the phone from Tehran. “And then we heard the anti-aircraft guns firing, and finally, booms and explosions as the missiles began to hit the city. And then, in the silence, the crying of children. And we realized, fuck, this is war. It’s exactly what we thought it would sound like.”

She expressed frustration at the media coverage she was seeing internationally.

“They say Israel has the right to defend itself — but they attacked us first,” she said, as the sound of a drone buzzing above her filtered through our call. “Israel says it’s trying to stop us from getting a nuclear bomb. But Iran respects international conventions on its nuclear program. Meanwhile, Israel has nuclear bombs — and doesn’t allow international inspectors in. They are the last people who should be giving an opinion on this.”

Samira argued that the attack had convinced many Iranians that they could not depend on diplomacy with the rest of the world. “When people in Iran see Israel’s attacks and how America is supporting them, they say, ‘Well, maybe the government is right to build a nuclear weapon. Because we’re all alone in this world. And no one is lifting a finger to stop Israel from killing us’.”

Not only are world powers not stopping Israel; they are actively supporting its war on Iran. Foremost among them is Donald Trump. Even as he said he was hopeful about the nuclear deal — and engaged in a widely publicized spat with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — Trump sent hundreds of missiles to Israel beforehand to give it the strongest hand possible. This was on top of tens of billions of dollars the U.S. has given in aid to Israel in the last five years.

Samira told me she was horrified to see the effects of Israel’s attacks: “They are hitting civilians, over and over.”

“Israeli Bombs Will Not Bring Us Freedom”

While Iranians inside Iran find themselves on the receiving end of Israel’s bombs, a vocal but small portion of the right-wing diaspora has mobilized in support of Israel. Yasmine Pahlavi, the wife of Reza Pahlavi, the son of the Iranian Shah deposed in a revolution in 1979, posted on her Instagram that Israel should “hit Iran.”

This wasn’t surprising. The Pahlavis visited Israel in 2023, expressing support for Israel. By throwing their support behind Netanyahu, the Pahlavis seemed to be pinning their hopes on returning to Iran with the backing of Israeli missiles. In the last three years, the Pahlavis developed a growing fan base in Iran as they pushed for war on Iran. Their supporters frequently condemned those who opposed them — even Iranians inside the country who had protested for democracy and been imprisoned — as pro-regime.

But over the last year, as Iranians have watched the genocide unfold in Gaza and Israel’s bloody war against Lebanon, support for the Pahlavis has frayed. Iranians have watched Israeli bombs tear apart civilian neighborhoods and destroy homes, while the international community failed to intervene. Israel has claimed its war was with the Islamic Republic and not Iranians. Yet the heavy civilian death toll — and its targeting of civilian infrastructure — suggest otherwise.

Israel and the Pahlavis are betting that Iranian society can be torn apart from the inside, opening a path to regime change. But as Iranians see their daily lives ravaged by missiles, they are blaming the regime sending the bombs — and the deposed royal family supporting them.

Mitra, an artist in central Tehran who asked to be identified by a pseudonym for safety reasons due to her involvement in Iran’s protest movement, said the experience of facing Israeli missiles has underscored for her how connected the lives of Iranians are to Palestinians: “The buzzing of drones and military aircraft above our heads doesn’t stop. For 20 months we heard these sounds in videos from Gaza. Now they’re above our heads. … Our story isn’t separate from theirs.”

Locals in Esfahan who spoke to Truthout expressed fear that an Israeli attack could lead to nuclear radiation spreading across the region.

Images of pulverized homes and bodies found in the rubble have underscored the connection. They have also mobilized Iranians — including many who strongly condemn their own government’s repressive policies — against Israel and its wars across the region.

Mitra was an active participant in the Woman, Life, Freedom movement, protesting against Iran’s government for its repressive political and social policies.

But she rejects claims that Israel is somehow defending Iranians from their government. “Israeli bombs will not bring us freedom,” she told Truthout.

There is growing fear that if Israel continues attacking nuclear sites, it might eventually hit something. Locals in Esfahan who spoke to Truthout expressed fear that an Israeli attack could lead to nuclear radiation spreading across the region.

And it is not only Iranians in Iran who are being targeted. Around 4 million Afghans live in Iran, and they, too, find themselves on the receiving end of Israeli bombs. In a viral video, an Afghan born and raised in Iran said that some of his Iranian friends told him he was lucky he had another country to flee to. His response was that he would stay, fight, and die alongside his Iranian compatriots if that’s what it came to.

So far, the United States has failed to intervene to stop Israel. And it’s hard to see how the war will halt without Trump doing so.

U.S. or UN condemnation and an arms embargo on Israel might be able to convince Netanyahu to stand down. But so far, there is little sign of either.

The result is a terrifying level of uncertainty in Tehran. It is also pushing many Iranians to rally behind their country’s military resistance against Israel. Battered from all sides, they feel that Iran’s only option is to defend itself.

“Many of us hate the government. But Israel bombing us is making Iranians more nationalistic,” Kamyar told me over the phone. “Israel’s attacks are bringing people together unlike ever before.”

Meanwhile, Iranians across the country are burying their dead. The death toll is rising day by day; at last count, it has reached at least 250 people.

One of those victims is Parnia Abbasi, a 24-year-old poet who was killed along with her family in an Israeli airstrike on Tehran.

A picture circulated of her body crushed under the concrete rubble of her home, blood pouring out of her head. Also circulating were some of the poems she had published. One was translated into English by Pamenar Press. Its words were devastating; like a prediction of the way her life was cut short:

I wept for both, for you, and for me.

You blow at the stars, my tears.

In your world, the freedom of light, in mine, the chase of shadows.

The most beautiful poem in the world, falls quiet.

You begin, somewhere, to cry,

The murmur of life.

But I will end, I burn.

I’ll be that extinguished star, in your sky, like smoke.

By Monday, June 17, Iranians were coming to terms with the fact that Israel’s war would not be ending any time soon. Israeli bombs struck Iran’s official TV headquarters while journalists were on the air, causing an unknown number of casualties. Airstrikes pounded Tehran, and Iran continued to lob missiles back toward Israel.

Israel’s military ordered residents to flee homes in Tehran’s District 3, an area that’s home to around 300,000 people. Highways jammed with cars as families left for rural areas they thought might be safer. But shortages at gas stations hindered many who hoped to flee.

With no way out, they hunkered down at home, waiting for morning – and praying that their stars would not be extinguished in the dark of night.