Gail Lopez-Henriquez, 71, of Old City, said she was “shocked and horrified” by news of the attacks and came to the protest to condemn what she said is an “unconstitutional” attack.
“The president does not have the authority to unilaterally decide to bomb another country, and I’m very afraid of what this is going to mean for the entire region of the Middle East, and I’m very worried about what it could mean for this country as well,” she said.
Dozens of people gathered at Philadelphia City Hall on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026, to protest U.S. and Israeli military attacks on Iran. (Emily Neil/WHYY)
Umer Rahman, 44, of Chesterbrook, Chester County, stopped by the protest with his wife and two children while walking through Center City.
He said the attacks are a “complete 180” from what he expected of the Trump administration.
“Why would you want to have your tax or your hard-earned money to go there and to kill not just kids, but destroy billions of dollars worth of infrastructure?” he said. “It’s only going to help [the] military industrial complex a whole lot, and I hope cooler heads can prevail.”
Dozens of people gathered at Philadelphia City Hall on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026, to protest U.S. and Israeli military attacks on Iran. (Emily Neil/WHYY)
Steve Telturk, 34, of West Philadelphia, said he has loved ones who are Iranian and have family in Iran.
“What I personally want to see, you know, as an American who cares about people in Iran and cares about human life overall, is just peace immediately,” he said. “I do want human rights for Iranians, and I would love to see an end of the regime one day. But … war is not the way that it’s going to happen. We won’t see a democracy that is created and led by Iranians through U.S. military action.”
‘The closest we’ve ever been to taking our country back’
Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was dead, seemingly confirming Israeli reports that the leader was killed in the military strikes.
For Reza Moradinezhad, 34, a Philadelphia resident and also a member of Philly Iranians, Khamenei’s death is something he and other Iranians “were wishing for.”
“He killed many of our friends, many of our compatriots who wanted nothing but freedom and dignity,” he said. “So what is happening in Iran is the people of Iran wanting to take their country back.”
Philly Iranians, a group advocating for an end to Iran’s theocratic regime and aligned with the Woman Life Freedom movement, hosted several vigils and gatherings earlier this year, protesting the Iranian government killing tens of thousands of protesters. (Courtesy of Philly Iranians)
“We’ve been fighting every single day, and now we see that we are getting the closest that we’ve ever been to taking our country back,” he said. “We feel very hopeful that the regime is eventually going to fall, but we are also concerned about our loved ones and our compatriots inside the country.”
Moradinezhad criticized the lack of local media coverage of vigils and events the group hosted last month in response to the Iranian government killing tens of thousands of protesters.
Philly Iranians, a group advocating for an end to Iran’s theocratic regime and aligned with the Woman Life Freedom movement, hosted several vigils and gatherings earlier this year, protesting the Iranian government killing tens of thousands of protesters. (Courtesy of Philly Iranians)
“We feel like we don’t want to be pawns of anyone, whether it’s President Trump or whether it’s the liberal media,” he said.
“We are concerned, obviously. But more than that, we are hopeful …. Really, we think this is our time.”