More than 6,000 people have been arrested in Iran since the start of the war three months ago, Amnesty International has found.
Those detained by Iranian authorities include protesters, journalists, lawyers, dissidents and members of ethnic minorities, the rights group said in a report released on Thursday.
During the same period, 39 "political executions" were also carried out in Iran, the group added.
"To maintain their grip on power, the authorities have unleashed an all-out assault on people in Iran, targeting anyone who dares to criticize the Islamic Republic, share information about the US or Israeli air strikes or human rights violations with the outside world, or simply attempt to break through what became the longest recorded internet shutdown to communicate with loved ones or access independent information," Amnesty expert Erika Guevara Rosas said.
She added that the population was already "suffering from the devastating consequences of unlawful air strikes by US and Israeli forces."
Amnesty heavily criticized Iran’s near-total internet shutdown, which had cut the population off from the global internet for almost three months. The restrictions were partially lifted for the first time on Wednesday.
"The internet blackout functioned as a central pillar of the authorities’ repression strategy, creating conditions in which widespread crimes under international law can be carried out with impunity," the report stated.
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