On Sunday, June 15, night fell on Tehran. The city of 14 million people had become a ghost town, deserted except for long lines of cars stretching out in front of gas stations. Throughout the day, streets and highways leading out of the capital were overrun by residents determined to seek safety away from the capital, far from Israeli bombardments.

That morning, the Israeli military urged the Iranian population, in a brief statement posted on its Persian-language accounts, to "immediately and very soon leave the surroundings of weapons factories and the institutions that support them," warning this was necessary to avoid risking their lives. "Where can we go?" "How do we know if we're close to these places?" "Which areas, which city?" worried Iranian users commented under the Israeli military's post.

The night of June 12 to 13, heralding the start of a summer weekend, had seemed calm and peaceful. Samira (whose name has been changed for security reasons), a 43-year-old woman from Tehran, returned home late with her husband after a festive evening with friends. Around 3 am local time, "an enormous noise" woke her. "It was as if a heavy truck had crashed to the ground from the sky," she explained in a WhatsApp interview. What followed were screams, crying and the barking of stray dogs. The building opposite their home had just been struck head-on by an Israeli projectile.

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