Emily Fang

That's closer to the more recent death toll reported by the Iranian Red Crescent.

But these updates are really sporadic, and so it's challenging, Scott, to know the full scale of civilian deaths in Iran.

People, and this might be surprising to listeners, people are still trying to live life as normal.

But the country is heavily securitized.

Five Iranians we spoke to this week said there were a ton of new checkpoints run by the Basij paramilitary group in Iran.

Israel says it is striking dozens of these new checkpoints.

But those strikes, they're killing security officials.

They're also killing civilians.

He told us his 26-year-old cousin was among civilians killed.

This man himself had just left Iran about a week before for Turkey, where I am, and he showed me these oil stains on his jacket, which he said were from fallout when Israel struck Iranian oil depots in early March.

that then sent flaming oil droplets in the air.

And he says his cousin who died had risked his life protesting against the government in Iran in January.

He himself wants this government to fall, but he acknowledges the cost is so painfully high.

And so you see these really painful choices that Iranians are grappling with, including the question of whether this war is going to be worth the many, many deaths of people they love around them.

Thanks, Scott.

An estimated hundreds of Iranians are crossing into Turkey each day, some to escape bombing, others simply to connect to internet, which the government has blocked in Iran.

This man speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of being arrested said people are trying to live normally in Iran despite the bombing.

He says he hopes the strikes can topple his government, but he mourns for the civilians killed in the strike.

Israel said it had killed the IRGC's top spokesperson Ali Mohammed Naimi overnight in an airstrike, and joint U.S.

and Israeli strikes also killed a senior commander in the IRGC, as well as Iran's security chief Ali Larajani this week.