Update: Middle East Eye is now reporting the death toll from the bombing of a girls’ school in Iran is now 115.
Al Jazeera is reporting that Israel bombed two schools in Iran.
Sadly, this is the same disregard for the childrens’ lives we’ve seen throughout the Gaza genocide.
Over 20,000 children have been killed.
According to UNICEF, the Gaza Strip now has the highest number of child amputees per capita anywhere in the world.
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This is a developing story that will be updated as new details emerge.
A joint U.S.-Israeli missile (some outlets are reporting it was an Israeli missile) struck the girls’ school in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province on February 28, killing dozens of children and injuring scores more.
The victims were girls between the ages of seven and 12. Approximately 170 students were inside the school when the missile hit.
The death toll has been climbing throughout the day, with Iran’s judiciary reporting at least 85 students dead and 63 injured.
Rescue workers continued to pull bodies from the wreckage hours after the attack, with many children still unaccounted for beneath the collapsed building.
From reporting by The Guardian:
At least 100 children had been killed in the strike on Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ school in Minab, southern Iran, the Mizan news agency reported, with dozens more unaccounted for.
In one video circulating on social media, purportedly showing the immediate aftermath of the strike, smoke rises from the burnt-out walls, and debris lies spread across the road.
Hundreds of onlookers gathered at the site, some in obvious distress. Screams can be heard in the background.
The report of the bombing, its death toll and the video’s source could not immediately be independently verified by the Guardian.
Persian factchecking service Factnameh was able to cross-reference the video with other photographs of the school site, and concluded that the video was authentic.
Reuters said it had also verified the footage as being from the school.
Hossein Kermanpour, spokesperson for Iran’s health ministry, said in a post to X that the bombing of the school was “the most bitter news” of the conflict so far. “God knows how many more children’s bodies they will pull from under the rubble.”
“A House of Mourning”
A school staff member who spoke to Middle East Eye described stepping outside moments before the strike, then hearing a devastating explosion.
She ran back toward the building and encountered a scene she said she would never forget.
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She described the sound of children crying and screaming from beneath the debris.
When rescue teams arrived and began to grasp the scale of the devastation, parents flooded to the school.
The building, she said, had become a house of mourning.
Part of a Massive Joint Military Operation
The strike on the school occurred during what the Pentagon has called “Operation Epic Fury” and Israel has named “Operation Roaring Lion” — a sweeping joint military assault launched across Iran on Saturday morning.
President Trump announced the beginning of “major combat operations” against Iran, claiming the strikes targeted the country’s missile infrastructure, nuclear capabilities, and military installations.
The bombardment hit cities across Iran, including the capital Tehran, Isfahan, Karaj, Qom, Tabriz, Bushehr, Kermanshah, and Ilam.
The first strikes appeared to hit near the compound of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose death Trump later claimed, though Iran has not confirmed it.
The attack came while diplomatic negotiations between Iran and the United States were still actively underway, with Oman serving as a mediator.
Oman’s foreign minister expressed dismay that the negotiations had been undermined.
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard operates a base in Minab, which may explain why the southern coastal city was included in the strike zone — but the school was a civilian target filled with young children on a Saturday morning, the first day of Iran’s school week.
Iran Retaliates, Region Engulfed
Iran responded to the strikes by launching retaliatory missile and drone attacks against Israel and U.S. military bases across the Middle East.
Bahrain reported that an Iranian strike hit the base housing the U.S. Fifth Fleet.
The United Arab Emirates said it intercepted incoming missiles, though shrapnel from one killed a foreign national in Abu Dhabi.
Jordan’s military said it shot down 49 drones and ballistic missiles threatening its territory.
Air raid sirens wailed across Israel as the country declared a state of emergency.
Condemnation Pours In
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on social media: “Tens of innocent children were killed in this place alone. This crime against the Iranian people will not go unanswered.”
U.S. Representative Rashida Tlaib posted on X several times. She condemned the strikes, warning that the illegal war of aggression had already killed dozens of children and that more death and destruction would follow.
She cautioned against believing the operation was motivated by concern for the Iranian people, pointing to years of crushing sanctions that had already devastated the country’s economy and the lives of millions.
Save the Children CEO Inger Ashing reminded the world that every war is a war on children, and that schools should always be a haven — not a battlefield.
A U.S. Central Command spokesperson told NPR only that the military was “aware of reports about civilians being harmed.”
The Human Cost Is Already Staggering
This attack did not happen in a vacuum. Iran was already reeling from a recent violent government crackdown on nationwide protests.
According to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, more than 7,000 people were confirmed dead during the protests, with over 11,000 additional deaths still under investigation.
Iranian citizens reached by reporters described a population already exhausted by grief and fear.
One Tehran resident described the strange mixture of terror and fragile hope — opponents of the regime acknowledged some relief that strikes appeared to target government installations, but were devastated by the civilian toll.
As one bakery owner in Tehran put it, his worry was that innocent people would be killed.
That worry proved justified before the morning was over.
As the dust settles on the ruins of Shajareh Tayyebeh elementary school, the world is left with images of parents weeping over the bodies of their daughters — children who woke up on Saturday expecting nothing more than another day of school.
No military objective justifies this. No geopolitical strategy erases it. These were children.
