Private messages reveal some Iranians still feel hope for future even as bombs fall
Even as the attacks on Iran continue, with smoke rising from airstrike targets, some Iranians are privately expressing hope that the turmoil could yield change that many have yearned for.
Watching conflicts, especially three of them in less than a year, has been "terrifying" for Amir, an Iranian journalist who asked ABC News not to use his real name over security concerns.
He lived through last June's 12-day war between Iran and Israel and reported on it as more than 1,200 people were killed, according to Iranian state media. After the U.S. targeted Iran's nuclear sites, that war ended with a ceasefire, which did not last more than eight months until a new war broke on the last day of last month.
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He then witnessed what he also describes as "a war" in January, when the ruling regime of Iran committed massacres and killed its own citizens in different cities across the country.
In an almost complete communication blockade, the Islamic Republic security forces killed at least 6,800 protestors, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), a U.S.-based group that relies on a network of activists in Iran.
And then, the new war broke as the U.S. and Israel launched a military operation on multiple targets in Iran on Feb. 28, following months of mediated and indirect talks between Tehran and Washington over Iran's nuclear program, during which American military started building up its military presence in the Persian Gulf.
The ongoing war against Iran by U.S. and Israeli forces, however, is "distinctive" to Amir and many others, especially since the news of killing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of the country, was confirmed.
While Khamenei's supporters took to the streets in big crowds mourning his death following the confirmation on March 1 of his death, other Iranians celebrated his death by dancing, singing and setting off fireworks in the country and abroad.
"Some people, at least in the early days, were happy about the war. Especially with the news of the assassinations," Amir told ABC News on Wednesday. "But gradually, some also began to feel scared."
While Iranian state media extensively airs images of the regime's supportive crowds as they commemorate the slain leader and express their loyalty to the new leader, voices of those who celebrate Khamenei's death and insist on ending the war are silenced.
ABC News received text and voice messages from several people on the ground who said they want the war to continue until the Iranian regime falls. They asked that ABC News to not use their names for their safety, fearing they could be detained or worse for speaking out.
An Iranian woman in Tehran, who asked to be called Sahar, told ABC News this week that it was President Donald Trump fulfilling his promise to Iranians, saying she wants the war to continue until the regime falls.
"We are worried that maybe this war stops before the regime change, and we want this war as help, as Mr. Trump has promised us," Sahar said.
Mohsen, a 36-year-old, started to believe that "only outside pressure could remove the regime in Iran," after he witnessed the regime's brutal suppression of 2009's peaceful nationwide protests.
He explained how the Islamic Republic consistently killed and imprisoned protesters and activists who pursued change over decades.
"The massacres of peaceful protesters in 2019, 2022, and again in January 2026 convinced many of us that war might be the only way to get rid of this regime, no matter the cost," Mohsen said. "That is why I feel a sense of relief that this war has begun, and I hope the United States sees it through to the end."
However, the fear has started to spread deeper as the war goes on. At least 1,045 Iranians have been killed so far, Iranian state media said earlier this month. Among those killed are 224 women and 202 children, as Iran's ministry of health reported on Saturday. The ministry did not provide the total number of Iranians killed since the war began.
Ziba, a 43-year-old who lives in Tehran, told ABC News that she left the capital after one week, when Israel issued an evacuation order for her neighborhood. She described harrowing scenes she witnessed in Tehran.
"It was the second day of the war when they were hitting the radio and television [stations] and the Tehran IRGC bases. I actually woke up thinking that an earthquake had hit Tehran," Ziba said, referring to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
She said her home was close to a few regime targets, and as bombs continued to fall she recalled feeling the blast was so strong the window frames almost fell out of place.
"The atmosphere in Tehran is much, much scarier than the first days, and many people are scared," she said. "I really think that the conditions are getting harder every day for those who stayed in Tehran."
The fear felt by many seems to be paired with hope for another young woman ABC News spoke with.
"We hear attacks like every three, four hours, and some days, maybe less. But I can say the sound, it keeps us going," she said. "We are grateful for this opportunity, and we are waiting for the day that we can go out to the streets and get our country back from the Islamic regime."
Despite that hope, an Iranian man texted ABC News, telling us he wants Americans to know that people on the ground realize Trump isn't in this war solely to free Iranians from their oppressor.
"People in Iran are not idiots," he told ABC News. "We don't think Trump or anyone is doing this for human rights only. We have to work with what we have." He added that Iranian people have to work with what they have without a foreign intervention to overcome the regime.
Trump said Friday that while change inside Iran will finally happen, he does not think it will be immediate. "It’ll happen," he said, speaking on Fox News Radio's The Brian Kilmeade Show, "but it probably will be -- maybe not immediately."
Terrified about the consequences of the ongoing situation and the scale of destruction in the country, Amir said he does not think people have much say in beginning or ending the war.
"Basically nothing in Iran progressed with the will of the people," he said. "We wanted freedom and peace, but it did not happen, and now we are engaged in war, and that too in the conditions of complete internet shutdown."
As millions of Iranians live under the Islamic Republic's regime nearly cut off from the rest of the world, they still try to keep hope alive.
"I don't know what will happen if the war continues, but I hope that one day this country will see a happy face," Amir said.
