Continuing US-Israeli air strikes have left parts of Tehran in rubble and the nerves of many in the capital frayed.
As the war nears the one-month mark, US Central Command (CENTCOM) says over 10,000 targets have been struck across Iran. According to the US-based human rights group HRANA, at least 1,464 civilians -- including at least 217 children -- have been killed in Iran since fighting began on February 28.
RFE/RL's Radio Farda gathered testimonies from Iranian civilians about daily life amid the air strikes. Reaching ordinary Iranians remains very difficult amid the Iranian government's ongoing Internet blackout, which has now lasted more than 600 hours.
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Iranians Tell RFE/RL Of 'Terrifying Moments' But Fear 'More Brutal' Rule If War Ends
One Tehran man says that while trauma and anxiety in the current situation are universal, he holds out hope for the prospect of what he calls "final victory" -- the moment, he says, when Iranians, rather than the current leadership, have the upper hand.
He does not believe in diplomacy: "Peace and all that? That's a pipe dream. You answer slaps and punches with bullets and bombs."
Another resident says she felt a moment of relief when Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other senior officials were killed on February 28, but then she learned that dozens of schoolchildren in Minab had died in an air strike on the same day.
"The country is being destroyed," she writes. "The only thing I want is for the war to end. These horrible sounds of explosions and this anxiety we're living with are no longer bearable."
While air strikes by all sides continue -- Iran has launched daily barrages of missiles and drones at Israel and targets around the Middle East -- Washington and Tehran have begun to exchange proposals through intermediaries that Washington says could lead to talks.
SEE ALSO: A Breakthrough Or Buying Time? Trump’s Claim Of Talks With Iran Raises QuestionsThe United States is pressing Iran to surrender its enriched uranium and curb its missile program, among other things; Iran is demanding reparations and recognition of its sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz.
The gap between those positions remains wide.
A common worry was expressed by one Tehran woman: What happens if the regime manages to stay in place?
"I'm worried that after the war, they'll become more savage and execute young people," she writes. "They executed three people in the middle of the war."
After every explosion, a woman in her 40s who contacted RFE/RL from Tehran reaches for her phone to check whether friends and family are still alive. "We genuinely don't know if we'll be alive tomorrow, or even in the next hour."
"I think even those who wished for America and Israel to attack didn't know what war was," one mother writes.