Israel’s attacks on Tehran have not only targeted military bases and nuclear sites, but they also have penetrated the bedrooms, kitchens and living rooms of ordinary citizens. Children have been killed. Teachers have fallen silent. Athletes have been buried in the rubble. All of them were as far removed from politics as possible.The attacks between Israel and Iran started on Friday, when Israel launched what it called preemptive air strikes targeting more than a dozen Iranian sites — including key nuclear facilities, nuclear scientists and military leaders — in an operation it said was aimed at preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
According to the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education, at least 224 people have been killed and 1,481 wounded.
Iran has retaliated with a wave of ballistic missile strikes against Israel, claiming the lives of at least 24 people and wounding 380, in an escalation that has raised fears of a broader regional conflict.
In Tehran, the full scale of the destruction remains to be seen. But in the streets, evidence of the lives lost emerges from the wreckage of bombed-out buildings. A child’s lifeless body in the rubble. A dirt-covered doll abandoned in the street. A sketchbook lost among the concrete and dust.
For many Iranians, these sce …
