Since the moment Israel attacked Iran on June 13, Shahrokh Afshar has been concerned about the members of his church who live in Iran.

The former Muslim and founder of Fellowship of Iranian Christians, the first Iranian Christian organization in the US, now pastors an online congregation with Farsi speakers from six countries.

Hundreds of civilians have died in Israeli strikes, and one of his church members decided to stay in Tehran as thousands fled the capital. She is the only person remaining in her apartment building, and she described to him a scene of fear and suffering.

The government is listening to people’s phone calls and arresting people on the streets, she said. On Sunday, Iranian authorities executed a man accused of spying. Her daughter’s friend lost her entire family in an Israeli bombing, and the cemeteries are full of people burying their loved ones.

She asked the church to “please pray that Iran will not retaliate against America, because the war will get even worse than what it is,” Afshar said.

Iran’s growing underground church is “very, very scared,” he added. For several days, many Iranians had no power, water, or internet access.

Afshar has been praying over the map of Iran for 30 years and acknowledged the complex set of emotions among Iranians.

“On the one hand, you are happy that someone has come to rescue you from the hands of this dictator,” he said, referring to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“On the other hand, it’s your country, your neighborhood, your neighbors, your loved ones who are being bombed. How are you supposed to feel?”

For decades, Israel has observed with trepidation an Iranian regime driven by a deep-seated hate for the Jewish nation.

Iran’s recent nuclear advancements have brought the regime to “the brink of true nuclear capability,” foreign policy expert Walter Russell Mead wrote in an October Wall Street Journal opinion piece, predicting 2025 would be an “interesting year.”

Eight months later, Israel launched an operation it hoped would prevent Iran from accomplishing its stated goal of destroying Israel.

It eliminated top Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders and nuclear scientists and shattered crucial infrastructure at Iranian nuclear sites.

After Israel began its strikes on Tehran, fears spiked and residents fled the city, backing up the highways with traffic.

Iran’s densely populated capital is home to more than 10 million people—approximately 10 percent of the country’s population.

On Saturday, the United States sent its stealth bombers and bunker-buster bombs to strike three nuclear sites, including Fordow, a facility buried deep beneath a mountain and a target Israel could not take out on its own.

The war has also impacted everyone in Israel, said Meno Kalisher, pastor of the Jerusalem Assembly House of Redemption.

The death toll in Israel would be much higher from Iran’s retaliatory strikes had Israel not invested heavily in bomb shelters and missile-defense systems.

Still, dozens of Israelis have died from missile fire targeting civilian populations and occasionally overwhelming Israel’s defenses.

“We really trust the Lord and pray,” Kalisher said. “We are praying for the Iranian church.”

Most people in his congregation have access to bomb shelters. In Iran, bomb shelters are scarce. Meanwhile, the Islamist government has spent more than $700 million a year supporting groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.

All five of the Iranian diaspora believers Christianity Today spoke to believe that while Iranians are fearful of bombings, most are relatively open to strikes that could topple the regime—an estimate based on conversations with friends and relatives as well as information gathered from online platforms.

“They are suffering through this, the people of Iran, but they know they have to pay a price for their freedom,” said Hormoz Shariat, founder of Iran Alive Ministries, a Christian broadcasting platform. “So they’re not bitter against Israel, and they’re not bitter against the US. Actually, they’re hopeful.”

Shariat said many Iranians have been “begging” Israel to launch an operation in Iran that mirrors the targeted attacks in Lebanon last year that killed dozens of Hezbollah operatives and wounded hundreds.

Iranians don’t want an endless war with mass casualties, he noted, but they welcome Israeli strikes that remove leaders “with laser accuracy.” He said Iranians are hopeful that regime change is within reach.

As the death toll rises, Afshar noted on Monday that “some people in Iran are having second thoughts because their loved ones are getting killed. Tehran has become a ghost town.”

In the wake of modern-day Israel’s establishment in 1948, economic and military ties flourished between Israel and Iran for several decades. Those ties deteriorated in 1979 when revolutionaries toppled Iran’s secular monarchy and established an Islamic republic.

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini replaced the shah, and the new leader severed ties with Israel and the West, implemented strict dress codes, and suppressed human rights. Muslims and Christians (who compose less than 1 percent of the population) have suffered under Khomeini and his successor, Khamenei.

According to the Open Doors World Watch List, Iran ranks number nine on the list of countries where it’s most dangerous to be a Christian. Believers from a Muslim background frequently face arrest and long prison sentences for perceived Western influence.

Iran’s authoritarian rule has cast a dark shadow over the country and launched multiple waves of protests. The Green Movement of 2009 began with widespread allegations of election fraud and expanded to a series of protests against the Islamic Republic of Iran’s crackdown on civil liberties. More than 30 people died.

According to a BBC investigation, Iranian authorities killed more than 75 people in the wake of protests connected to the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini. The 22-year-old woman died in custody after morality police arrested her for allegedly failing to wear a headscarf.

A Jewish Iranian who converted to Christianity after he immigrated to the United States in 1975 said some Iranians in the diaspora are less critical of Tehran because they emigrated prior to the regime’s wave of repression.

Yet those who lived through its darker days have become disillusioned, he noted. CT granted him anonymity to protect his family members in Iran.

One of his religious Muslim friends in Iran quit attending mosque after the death of Amini and the government’s brutal crackdown on protesters.

“Thousands and thousands of mosques have been closed in Iran, from what they’re telling me,” he said. Some Muslim clerics blame the shuttering of mosques on a lack of funding, but others say the more likely cause is poor attendance.

Said Najafy, an Iranian Christian and ministry leader in Belgium, said the regime has wanted to destroy Israel since 1979 and the Iranian people have suffered as a result.

He grew up in a religious Muslim family and lived in Iran until 2000. Some of his family members fled Tehran in the wake of the bombings.

“We want to go back to the old days when we were friends,” he said. “We are praying and hoping that the regime will fall as soon as possible.”

Najafy joined virtual prayer meetings this past week with Christians in Iran and the four Farsi-speaking churches in Belgium. He said Iranian Christians are both praying for God’s protection over civilians and rejoicing that “Israel is the helper, coming and eliminating this evil regime that has been ruling for almost five decades.”

On Thursday, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu directly addressed the question of Israel seeking regime change in Tehran.

“That may be a result, but it’s up to the Iranian people to rise for their freedom,” he said, noting that Israel “may create conditions that will help them do it.”

Shirin Taber, an Iranian American Christian and author of Muslims Next Door, has tracked Iran’s resistance movement. Her organization, Empower Women Media, focuses on gender equality and religious freedom—rights she hopes are part of a systematic change in Iran.

According to Taber, Iran’s opposition movement is multilayered. Iran’s Gen Z is bold, tech-savvy, and willing to join public protests, but that’s not enough to bring about change.

“If anything, it actually puts people in harm’s way, and people have been killed,” Taber added.

Taber said another tier of Iran’s opposition movement works behind the scenes and includes a coalition of people in business, technology, art, and journalism.

She believes it’s possible the regime could collapse in the next few weeks, creating an avenue for opposition movements to step in.

Shariat, the founder of Iran Alive Ministries, is less optimistic. He has observed infighting between Iranian factions.

He stays focused on his ministry broadcasts into Iran, which have been happening daily since the Israeli attacks began. The Iranian church is full of “baby Christians” who are fearful of what lies ahead, he noted.

“Our message to believers is that you are different. Don’t be afraid,” Shariat said. “This is the time to shine for Jesus. Go bring comfort to others.” He hears stories about Christians outside the capital opening their homes to people fleeing Tehran.

Meanwhile, Afshar encourages his online congregation to engage in an ancient church practice called lectio divina that involves “beholding God and sitting at the feet of Jesus” in a time of quiet prayer.

The practice has helped the Christian woman in Tehran as she battles her fear. She told Afshar, “I have no fear because I practice the presence of God daily in my walk with him.”