{"id":20011,"date":"2025-06-27T20:49:08","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T20:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/20011\/"},"modified":"2025-06-27T20:49:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T20:49:08","slug":"philadelphias-iranian-and-israeli-residents-react-to-ceasefire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/20011\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia\u2019s Iranian and Israeli residents react to ceasefire"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? Let us know!<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

Philadelphians with ties to Iran and Israel remain wary and hopeful as the ceasefire that put a pause on the 12-day war<\/a> continues. The conflict began with Israeli strikes against Iran on June 13. The Iranian Health Ministry said 627 Iranians were killed<\/a>, while 28 people in Israel perished, according to Israeli officials<\/a>. The U.S. entered the fray by bombing Iranian nuclear sites on June 21<\/a>. Iran responded by sending missiles to attack a U.S. airbase in Qatar<\/a>, most of which were intercepted and caused no casualties.\n<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei spoke Thursday after days of silence, saying the country\u2019s response to the U.S. bombing was a \u201cslap to America\u2019s face.\u201d<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

A protest against U.S. involvement in the conflict is planned for Saturday as organizers say they expect \u201chundreds\u201d of people to rally at City Hall in Center City Philadelphia.\n <\/p>\n

Philadelphia residents of Iranian descent fear impact of conflict on average citizens and prisoners back home<\/p>\n

Sanaz Yaghmai, a Dubai-born resident of Iranian descent and president of the organization Philly Iranians<\/a>, wiped away tears as she reflected on her initial reaction to hearing about the Israeli strikes in Tehran earlier this month.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad, he lives in Dubai, but he also visits Iran a lot,\u201d Yaghmai said. \u201cHe was in Tehran at that time, because he travels around, and so it was obviously deeply shocking and completely unexpected.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Despite the ceasefire in place, Yaghmai said she\u2019s not hopeful, because she doesn\u2019t trust either of the governments involved.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just seems like there is enemies all around and the Iranian people\u2019s number-one enemy has always been the Islamic Republic,\u201d Yaghmai said.\n<\/p>\n

Yaghmai said she worries that the Islamic regime has intensified its brutality and stepped up executions of political prisoners<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

However, she said she does have faith \u201cin the people of Iran.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Iranian people continue to remain resilient and hold each other through their grief, their rage, and then probably extreme exhaustion at this point,\u201d Yaghmai said.\n<\/p>\n

Hosein Maleki, an Iranian-born Philadelphia resident who teaches at Rutgers University, has similar views about the Iranian government, and welcomed the initial targeted Israeli assassinations<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, I got quite happy when I saw generals are being targeted,\u201d Maleki said. \u201cBut after that, I started getting worried about how precise they\u2019re going to hit those targets \u2014 is it going be a long war?\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Maleki grew up in the southern Iranian city of Ahvaz during the Iran-Iraq war.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI still remember the war,\u201d Maleki said. \u201cI have clear memories of the bombardments and the whole panic and the need to evacuate the cities.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Maleki shares Yaghmai\u2019s fears about the Islamic regime.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe regime doesn\u2019t have a good history of respecting human rights or due process,\u201d Maleki said. \u201cSo my big fear is that executions are going to continue.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":20012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,83,99,3097,1448,2830,1311,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-20011","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-iran","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-middle-east","12":"tag-pa","13":"tag-pennsylvania","14":"tag-philadelphia","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114757301934256963","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}