Expected, yet stressful. How Iranians reacted to Israel’s attack

Life returned to its normal rhythm within hours in Iran, but a sense of trepidation remains.

By Maziar Motamedi

Tehran, Iran – Thousands of Iranians in Tehran were jolted awake by the sound of explosions in the early hours of Saturday as Israel attacked.

“I heard about 10 booms in relatively quick succession,” said Ali, a 32-year-old who lives in western Tehran, where the first booms were heard after 2am (22:30 GMT on Friday).

Iranians got on social media to report hearing explosions all over the city and some surrounding areas.

By the time the second round of attacks hit a few hours later, videos were circulating online showing air defences being activated to counter incoming threats.

“Not that it was unexpected, but it was stressful anyway. We were up till morning with family checking the news, and we were talking with colleagues in our Telegram channels and looking for details,” said Ali, who asked his surname to be withheld.

Echoes of war

In Tehran and elsewhere across the country, life mostly continued as normal on Saturday, the first day of the working week in Iran.

Traffic was normal in different areas of the capital and other affected cities.

Some people, however, were caught up in the immediate effect of the sense of danger and uncertainty due to an attack on the country, which has not seen all-out war on its soil since neighbouring Iraq invaded it in the 1980s.

“The local market was selling everything 30-40 percent more expensive than it was just a week ago… but I expect things will calm down by tomorrow or the next few days,” said a 65-year-old resident of the northern province of Gilan.

A computer salesman at a downtown Tehran shop said the currency’s turbulence also presented a challenge.

The area around Tehran’s City Theatre was bustling as usual on Saturday afternoon, half a day after the Israeli attacks [Maziar Motamedi/Al Jazeera]

“It’s been tough with the constant rate flux and price changes for more than a month now, it’s bad for business. I really hope we can avoid a war for everyone’s sake, especially in this economy,” he told Al Jazeera.

While the Iranian rial stayed relatively stable since the onset of Israel’s war on Gaza, it became shaky amid increasing concerns of an all-out regional war.

Recently, it fell from about 600,000 to the dollar a month ago to a high of about 690,000 earlier this week, then regained some lost ground in the aftermath of the Israeli attack to reach about 660,000.

With the central bank pumping currency to tame the market, state-linked media expressed hope on Saturday that the rial could strengthen to its range last month.

Gold coins also dropped about 5 percent in value during trading on Saturday, and the Iranian stock market was mostly a sea of green after the conclusion of the Israeli strikes – which ended up appearing tamer than originally threatened by Israeli leaders.

‘Limited damage’

After weeks of speculation that Israel could target Iranian energy infrastructure, authorities said there were no strikes on major refineries, power stations, natural gas lines, or sensitive nuclear sites.

There have been no threats of direct or immediate retaliation from Iranian authorities so far.

The Israeli attack was expected, in retaliation for Iran’s launch of some 200 ballistic missiles at Israel on October 1, although the extent is still unclear.

Iran said the attacks targeted military sites in Tehran and the western provinces of Ilam and Khuzestan, and that air defences worked well, resulting in “limited damage”.

Two soldiers were killed in the attack, according to a statement by Iranian armed forces.

On the same day, 10 Iranian border guards were killed in an armed attack on a police convoy in the southeastern province of Sistan and Balochistan.

Responsibility was claimed by the Jaish al-Adl armed separatist group, which Tehran considers to be a “terrorist” group with links to Israel.