Before the war, Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz was an Iranian holiday destination that offered boutique hotels, quaint cafés, and the embrace of a slower, disconnected island lifestyle.
“Suddenly, we are living on the front line,” says one Qeshm guesthouse owner in a text message exchange, who could not be named for his security, as he prepared to leave the island Thursday after nine years. It had been another night of blasts and the buzz of drones and fighter jets.
“It’s been a nightmare. We have [U.S. or Israeli] attacks almost every day,” he says.
Why We Wrote This
The world has watched as President Donald Trump vacillates between promises that peace is near in Iran and threats of renewed war. No one bears the cost of that uncertainty more than Iranians.
U.S. strikes on Iran early Wednesday and Thursday – which U.S. Central Command portrayed as “self-defense” for Iran’s earlier downing of a U.S. Apache attack helicopter – included targets on Qeshm, which overlooks the narrow Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of global energy supplies pass.
The United States justified the second night of strikes, saying Iran was taking too long to accept a truce deal on American terms. “If we need to negotiate with bombs, we’ll negotiate with bombs,” said Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
President Donald Trump said Iran would be hit “very hard” for a third night, in a social media post Thursday. The U.S. would seize “Kharg Island, and other oil infrastructure points, and assume total control of their Oil and Gas Markets,” he wrote, in the “not too distant future.”
Asghar Besharati/AP
Qeshm Island, perched on the Strait of Hormuz and shown here April 13, 2026, has been damaged by several recent airstrikes during the U.S.-Israeli military campaign, according to local witnesses.
From tranquil to turmoil
Iran responded both nights by launching missiles and drones at American bases in Jordan, Kuwait, and Bahrain. On early Thursday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps closed the strait and declared that any moving vessel would be attacked.
Iran says the U.S. strikes have rendered the April ceasefire “effectively ... meaningless,” and warned of “dangerous consequences.”
The war launched jointly against Iran in late February by the U.S. and Israel – marked by thousands of airstrikes and missile exchanges and now battle over control of the strait – has turned Qeshm into a battle zone. The disruption of its once-renowned tranquility now reflects the broader turmoil and contested consequences of the conflict for Iranians.
The island has become unrecognizable, says the guesthouse owner, with 60 or so cafés and homestays closed. Two of his friends were killed weeks into the war while doing maintenance on their boats. Residents erase contents on their mobile phones to avoid scrutiny at numerous security checkpoints.
“You know, what’s killing us is not the missiles or drones, or [Shiite clerical] mullahs or Trump,” says the Qeshm resident, who loaded his vehicle and another truck for his exodus from the island Thursday. “Not having a vision is the most lethal weapon.”
The Islamic Republic portrays the result so far as “victory” over far more capable enemies that sought to topple the regime and destroy its strategic capabilities.
The regime has instead survived – and has even found ways to exercise new global economic leverage. But Iranian citizens say the country’s underlying problems remain unsolved. After years of economic hardship, exacerbated by Western sanctions over its nuclear program, and a deadly government crackdown on antiregime protests earlier this year that left thousands dead, many say the war has only deepened a sense of exhaustion and despair.
Vacillating threats – including one to send Iran back to the “Stone Age” – and unrealized diplomatic promises from Mr. Trump have added to their uncertainty.
On Wednesday, just hours after predicting a truce deal within days, Mr. Trump claimed on social media, “They have been completely defeated. Iran is all talk and no action. The Bully of the Middle East is DEAD!!!”
Amid counterthreats from Iran’s surviving leadership, many Iranians say the term “victory” is hard to envision as anything more than avoiding defeat. “No war has an ideal outcome; the choices are limited to bad and worse,” says a middle-aged electronics engineer and father of two in Tehran, contacted by phone, who gave the name Behnam. He says he lost a relative in an Israeli airstrike.
“A bad outcome is the end of the war with the current status quo, and a worse outcome is the resumption of the war with more losses and casualties,” he says. “In any case, it will not be considered a victory. Both the regime and Iranian civil society are weaker than they were three months ago.”
Vahid Salemi/AP
Women buy vegetables in northern Tehran, Iran, June 10, 2026.
“People still need to see the dividends”
Despite damage to industrial and economic infrastructure and rising inflation, Behnam says, the…
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