‘What should we do?’ Seeking clarity in Tehran as Israeli jets fly overhead

Fear and stress are obvious in my sister’s voice to Tehran, despite the connection of crackled and intermittent Whatsapp which – miraculously – always works from time to time.

Clarity is what she wants with me, knowing that I am a journalist at the BBC in London.

“What will happen? What should we do?” she asked. President Donald Trump said that the people of Tehran should evacuate. “Is it serious?”

Since Thursday evening, Tehran has been reported with bombing repeated by Israeli planes, which seem to fly freely through the sky of the capital. They are encountered by an anti -aircraft fire – which is mainly ineffective.

From its window on the upper floors of a high-rise building, my sister can clearly see the action, which does not do much to calm its nerves.

The Israeli army has ordered people in its district – stretching for several kilometers in all directions – to evacuate. But she chose to stay.

She told me that, as far as she knows, there was no military type targets near her building.

However, she was concerned about a neighboring commercial unit – held, she believed, by the revolutionary guards – which could be a target. She had no idea what the company really did.

Many people do not know who their neighbors are or if the military targets are nearby, because a large part of the activity of the guards of the revolutionaries is carried out secretly and in hidden places.

Electricity and water are always available in many parts of the capital, but food supplies are low.

Many stores have closed and others close. Even the bakeries close – some due to the lack of flour, others probably because the owners fled.

My sister refused to leave the city, unlike the hundreds of thousands – perhaps millions – who already have, mainly because she has nowhere to go.

Despite the packaged roads and the fuel shortages, many residents have fled in recent days.

The streets of Tehran, once for use with traffic, are now strangely silent.

Those who are barely venturing, fearing attacks.

Recent reports suggest that long queues in service stations have started to facilitate ease, and roads out of the capital are less congestioned.

Residents living near the country’s nuclear facilities are faced with the additional fear of the propagation of radioactive contamination, as these sites have been targeted several times by Israeli strikes in recent days.

The global nuclear guard dog has so far declared that radioactivity levels outside two sites that have been attacked and damaged on Friday are unchanged.

People ask where all this will lead and how long it will last.

Many are now counting on the television channels in Persian language based abroad for the news.

The BBC Persian television service and its website have become key sources. Web traffic inside Iran has doubled almost overnight, although the Internet is painfully slow most of the time.

Trump called on Iran’s surrender, but Iran’s supreme chief, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has just declared that Iran did not go.

Few Iranians sympathize with the regime, but many fear that chaos and anarchy can follow if it is considerably destabilized.