Hundreds of people celebrated on the streets of Tehran after Iran launched its biggest-ever attack on Israel on October 1.
“This attack showed Iran’s power and authority,” Abbas, who was among the crowd in the Iranian capital, told RFE/RL’s Radio Farda.
But many Iranians who spoke to Radio Farda expressed fear of Israeli military retaliation and the prospect of an all-out war with Israel.
“We’ve been in a state of fear and stress for months,” said Naghmeh, a resident of Tehran. “Now we look to the skies to see when [Israel] will attack.”
Israel has vowed a severe response to Iran’s massive missile attack on October 1.
The assault was bigger and bolder than Iran’s unprecedented strikes on Israel in April, when Tehran fired hundreds of drones and missiles at its archenemy. Israel retaliated by hitting an air-defense radar system in the central Iranian city of Isfahan.
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Will Iran's Attacks On Israel Trigger A Regional Blowup?
Experts have warned of a stronger Israeli response, and media reports say Israel could strike Iran’s nuclear facilities or critical infrastructure, a prospect that has alarmed Iranians.
“This time, the prospect of war is more serious,” Parastu, a journalist in Tehran, told Radio Farda.
She said many Iranians have stocked up on food and medicine following Iran’s attack. There have been long lines at gas stations in the city, she said.
'People Live In Fear'
Maryam, who saw missiles being launched at Israel from Iran on October 1, said ordinary Iranians will pay the “highest cost.”
“While the officials and their families live in peace, people live in fear,” she said.
Alireza, another Iranian, told Radio Farda that he was considering selling his assets and moving abroad because “it seems that this time, war is coming.”
An Iranian woman fills her car with fuel at a gas station after the missile attack on Israel, in Tehran on October 1.
Several younger Iranians who spoke to Radio Farda appeared unfazed by the prospect of war. That has surprised the generation of Iranians who witnessed the devastating 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War.
“They have no understanding of war and its consequences,” said Fereshteh, who is from Khuzestan Province, one of the worst-hit areas during the war with Iraq. “It looks like we’re going to be displaced again.”
The fear is not just limited to Iranians.
Members of Iran’s sizeable Afghan community, some of whom fled Taliban rule in Afghanistan, are scared that they might be forced to leave the Islamic republic.
“We had no choice but to flee Afghanistan for Iran out of fears for our lives, but today the rising tensions between Iran and Israel suggest that the region is on the brink of war,” Afghan women’s rights activist Halima Pazhwak told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi.
“We don’t know where to go from here,” she added.