Tehran neighborhoods empty out as Israel and Iran exchange barrages

“Everything happened so fast. I didn’t expect that. We heard some fighter jets, we saw some air defense systems shooting objects which were probably drones,” he said. “We are all terrified, and we don’t know what to predict, but we don’t want this war.”

As the first explosions were going off, people started sending panicked messages to their relatives abroad.

Azam Jangravi, an Iranian human rights advocate who lives in Canada, showed NBC News the texts she received from her 17-year-old cousin, Donya, in Tehran.

“It’s so frightening,” the girl wrote. “While the call to prayer is being broadcasted, you keep hearing these booms, one after another.”

Like Jangravi, thousands of Iranians abroad have been anxiously trying to reach their relatives back home, but with very little luck. Communications are patchy and increasingly difficult.

According to the site NetBlocks, which monitors internet access worldwide, on Thursday there was a near-total internet blackout in the country as Iranian authorities have shut down the network.

For Jangravi, Iranians are being caught between two warring sides.

“Two governments are fighting on our land,” she said. “In the first days of the war, people were happy because they thought they’d kill Khamenei, but right now they don’t have any hope,” she said referring to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.