US, Israeli bombs rain down, Iranians flee as internet blocked | Israel-Iran conflict news

Tehran, Iran – “The war can last for weeks, so my family and I only leave if it gets too bad. For now, life goes on,” says Sepehr, a resident of east Tehran.

The booming sound of explosions is a daily reality this week where they live, sometimes sending thick smoke to the horizon and shaking windows, he told Al Jazeera, asking to remain anonymous for security reasons.

The scenes were similar across Tehran, a sprawling city of about 10 million people, with United States and Israeli missiles raining down in rapid succession during waves of attacks that have taken place at all hours of the day since the fighting began Saturday morning, killing more than 1,000 people.

Iranian officials said Thursday that some water and electricity facilities had been damaged by projectiles and asked people to conserve resources, but no widespread outages had been reported so far.

The capital’s streets are noticeably quieter and less congested than usual, and many businesses are closed. However, basic necessities are mostly available through in-person and online orders.

“When the bombings seem to be over for a while, I go for a short walk during the day to get some essentials from the local shops. Usually there are queues for bread, which are not very long, and there are queues at some petrol stations,” said Marjan, who lives in the western neighbourhood.

“Shops mostly have everything you need, except for a few items that may be in short supply, but who knows what will happen later. Either way, the prices are breaking people’s backs,” he said.

Two days before the start of the war, the Statistical Center of Iran (SCI) and the Central Bank of Iran released separate reports that painted a grim picture of how the daily livelihoods of 90 million people were affected by runaway prices.

The SCI put annual inflation at 68.1 percent in Iran’s Bahman month ended February 19, while the central bank put it at 62.2 percent. Inflation rates are some of the highest recorded since the pre-Islamic revolution of 1979, which ushered in the establishment of the current theocracy, raising further concerns about potentially rising hyperinflation.

According to SCI, Iran has the highest food inflation rate in the world at 105 percent at the end of last month.

That includes inflation rates of 207 percent for cooking oil, 117 percent for red meat, 108 percent for eggs and dairy products, 113 percent for fruit and 142 percent for bread and corn.

First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref told state media on Wednesday that the government was concerned about providing enough medicine and medical equipment, “but fortunately today the conditions are good”.

Iran’s drug market has been in turmoil in recent weeks, with prices soaring and some drugs such as antidepressants facing shortages in Tehran and other cities. In some cases, only Iranian-made versions of the drug are found on the market, with foreign-made counterparts becoming rare.

The government continues to give people a meager cash subsidy to buy essential items, and the items that can be purchased through the scheme have recently been expanded to include baby diapers, which have doubled in price in recent months.

Government officials are stressing that provincial governors and ministers are empowered to import large quantities of essential goods with less red tape to ensure continuity in the event of a protracted war.

Iran’s economy, bruised and isolated after decades of corruption and abuses coupled with US and UN sanctions, is back on hiatus as its forces launch ballistic missiles and drones across the region amid a war.

The Iranian rial was around 1.66 million per US dollar before the war, an all-time low. The stock market was a sea of ​​red as investors grappled with the prospect of an increasingly uncertain future, while traditional assets such as gold soared.

‘Orwellian’ comms blackout

As the bombs fall, Iranian authorities are blocking access to the global Internet for a sixth day, trying to limit information channels to government news and messaging services.

Those channels mostly contain official statements and news of successful attacks by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) across the region.

They mostly limit the local scope of the strikes to civilian areas damaged by US and Israeli munitions and refrain from discussing the impact of strikes on large numbers of police stations or paramilitary Basij bases.

Journalist Milad Alavi posted on X on Wednesday that the tweet comes after six hours of trying and testing more than 59 configurations of virtual private networks (VPNs) and proxy connections.

“Internet connection both fixed and mobile cut in Iran. We are left without news while on state television, Iran is on the verge of taking over Tel Aviv and Washington!”

Internet connectivity was disrupted in Tehran and across the country within minutes of warplanes bombing the capital’s downtown area on Saturday morning, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, several members of his family and several top military commanders.

Hours later, connectivity was less than 1 percent of previous levels, which were already severely limited, and remained at that level, according to data shared by international observers such as CloudFlare and NetBlock.

“An increasingly Orwellian environment is emerging as telcos threaten users trying to connect to the global Internet with legal action,” NetBlocks said Thursday, citing users who report receiving threatening text messages from telecom authorities after trying or sharing VPNs.

With an intranet set up by authorities to accommodate local websites and services, the comment sections of some major news sites have become the only place some Iranians can express themselves online at the moment.

After many sentiments criticized the state authorities, the judiciary ordered the closure of the comment section of the popular technology-focused site Zoomit.

Political, military and intelligence officials have repeatedly urged citizens to report any suspicious activity or sightings of US and Israeli warplanes by calling the security services.

As with the 12-day war with Israel and the US last June and the 20-day total internet blackout during nationwide protests in January, a black market has formed for any connection that manages to tunnel into the global internet.

Two people Al Jazeera spoke to said they managed to buy proxy connections for a few gigabytes of data from a vendor inside Iran, which is slow and extremely expensive, but did not discuss details for security reasons.

Iranian officials have not set an end date for the internet restrictions, as US and Israeli officials tell Iranian citizens to be careful they may topple the installation at a later date.