Fear, jubilation, jokes: Iranians react after attack on Israel

Tehran, Iran – On Tuesday evening, as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched an unprecedented ballistic missile attack on Israel, thousands of Iranians took to the streets to celebrate.

While some of the missiles were still in the air, in major cities across Iran, the government sent text messages encouraging people to attend state-organised rallies in support of the attack. Broadcast live on state television, the rallies saw the sky lit up with fireworks and jovial songs, praising Iranian armed forces and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, blared from loudspeakers.

“Watch the moments of impact, where’s Picasso to come take down these moments! Where else are you looking for a subject Hollywood, watch this and enjoy,” presenter Amirhossein Tahmasebi ecstatically told the millions of viewers tuned into the state broadcaster’s popular Channel 3, over footage of dozens of missiles crashing into Israel.

Only days earlier, the same presenter had warned that Tehran could be attacked next if it did not avenge Israel’s killing of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and IRGC Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan in a major attack on Beirut. He had argued that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “only understands the language of missiles, and the ballistic kind”.

It first appeared that Iran was exercising more of its “strategic patience” amid concerns of an all-out regional war breaking out, with the government of moderate President Masoud Pezeshkian reluctant to strike during a highly volatile period.

The message coming from the state largely focused on the fact that “Hezbollah is alive” and relayed the message that the “axis of resistance” that Iran backs across the region will continue to act against Israel’s goals. There were no promises of a looming “harsh revenge” as with prior Israeli assassinations.

But once Tuesday’s missile attack on Israel was under way, Iranian authorities displayed a united front, emphasising that all branches of the state, including the army and the government’s defence ministry, backed the offensive.

In videos released to the media, the chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, Mohammad Bagheri, and IRGC Commander-in-Chief Hossein Salami were seen grinning in a command centre as they watched missiles hit Israel. Another video showed Salami calling the president to report that missiles broke through and that air defence batteries were fully prepared to fight off any Israeli response.

Worries about the war coming home

After the attack, Iran told the US and other Israel allies to stay their hands, warning that their bases would be directly targeted by more Iranian missiles if they participated in a potential Israeli attack on Iran.

But with the Israeli military having already killed more than 1,000 people in Lebanon and hundreds more in the Gaza Strip – many of them civilians – just in the past few days, with little to no pushback from its European allies, some in Iran are apprehensive about the devastating war reaching their doorstep.

“I was so afraid last night, we considered packing up and leaving town with our family,” a 55-year-old woman, who asked not to be named, told Al Jazeera on Wednesday morning. “I half expected somewhere to have been hit when I woke up today, especially with some news saying Israeli jets were fuelling up to attack, but it all seems to be calm for now.”

Perhaps in anticipation of expanding its attacks to include Iran, Israel has been trying to influence Iranian minds directly in the past few days.

Netanyahu released a video on Monday to address the people of Iran, saying “you deserve better” than the current Iranian establishment, but also warning that “there is nowhere in the Middle East that Israel cannot reach.”

After the missile attack, an Israeli military spokesperson released a video in Farsi, telling Iranians that Israel will retaliate against Iran at a time, place and manner of its choosing.

شب‌های بمباران موشکی تهران، ۱۳۶۶ pic.twitter.com/pA7gXUFsYf

— Persian Nostalgia (@PersianMemories) October 1, 2024

Translation: Nights of missile bombing in Tehran [during the eight-year Iran-Iraq War], 1987

Ali, a 31-year-old from Tehran, said he is not panicking about a potentially imminent attack just yet.

“But there’s a real risk of war and bombs falling on our heads, I hope we don’t get to that point. How many people around the world have to be worried about something like that?” he asked.

Amid Israeli threats of retaliation, many in Iran turned to laughter to ease the burden.

Iranian social media was littered with jokes, many reflecting fears and uncertainty about the future.

“Best thing about autumn is when you’re wearing a hoodie and zigzagging in a shelter to dodge missiles,” one user wrote.

“Middle East, 270 days out of 365 in a year,” another wrote, quoting a post that said, “we are in a historic night.”

Another Iranian light-heartedly pointed out how the frequency of conflict might be affecting people’s ability to plan for their future.

“I slowly put my five-year plans in the drawer and take out my five-hour plans!”.

But some Iranians inside and outside the country, who are opposed to the current establishment, have also expressed support for Israel online in the aftermath of the missile attack. In response, the intelligence department of the IRGC released a short statement on Wednesday, calling on people to report “any support for the fake Israeli government in the cyberspace”.