Three days into the U.S.-Israeli military assault on Iran, the death toll has surpassed 555 people — and it’s climbing fast.
The Iranian Red Crescent Society reported the figure on Monday as fresh waves of airstrikes tore through Tehran, Fars province, and other regions across the country, hitting everything from government buildings to schools, hospitals, and media outlets.
The scope of the destruction is staggering.
Observers and analysts are increasingly drawing direct comparisons to the devastation in Gaza, where Israel’s ongoing genocide has killed or displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians since October 2023.
Political analyst Trita Parsi described the bombing of Iran as “seemingly indiscriminate,” warning that the U.S. and Israel appear to be applying the same military playbook they used in Gaza after failing to trigger a quick collapse of the Iranian government.
Embed from Getty ImagesSchools Full of Children. Gymnasiums Full of Teenage Girls.
The single deadliest attack so far struck the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ elementary school in Minab on Saturday, killing at least 175 people — most of them children.
Hours later, a missile hit a gymnasium in Lamerd where dozens of teenage girls were playing sports, killing at least 18 more.
Elementary school girls. Teenagers at a gym. These are the casualties of what the Trump administration insists is a targeted campaign against Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
The head of the Iranian Red Crescent said the Minab school attack was unlike anything he had seen — including in Gaza.
UNESCO condemned the strike as a grave violation of protections for schools under international humanitarian law.
Nobel Peace laureate Malala Yousafzai called on all parties to protect civilians and safeguard schools, saying every child deserves to live and learn in peace.
The National Iranian American Council pointed out the obvious: basic protections meant to safeguard civilian lives in wartime either failed completely or were deliberately ignored.
“They Dropped the First Bomb. Then When People Went to Help, They Dropped Another.”
In central Tehran, strikes hit the Abbasabad Police Station in Niloofar Square — a site where anti-government protesters had reportedly been tortured during Iran’s recent crackdown on dissent. (video)
At least 20 people were killed. Residents said the location had been bombed twice in three days.
Across the capital, U.S. and Israeli forces struck the Revolutionary Court, the Defense Ministry, at least eight medical facilities, and state media buildings.
Video from Ferdowsi Square showed widespread devastation in the heart of the city.
Perhaps the most disturbing accounts describe what’s known as “double-tap” strikes — where an initial bomb is dropped, and a second follows shortly after to kill survivors and the people rushing in to help them.
One Iranian woman, captured on video, described exactly this.
The people who came to rescue the wounded were hit with another bomb. This happened more than once in Gaza last year.
Filmmaker Robert Inlakesh called it carpet-bombing, noting that strikes have hit playgrounds, emergency services headquarters, schools, media buildings, and medical facilities.
This is not a precision operation.
This is a campaign of mass destruction.
The Administration Says It’s Not Regime Change. Nobody Believes Them.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio continued insisting on Monday that the war is about preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons — not about toppling the government. But the facts on the ground tell a different story. Former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei is dead, along with dozens of senior government and military officials.
When you kill a country’s supreme leader and its top leadership while leveling civilian infrastructure across the nation, calling it anything other than regime change is an insult to everyone watching.
Meanwhile, Iranian counterattacks have killed six U.S. service members, nine Israelis, and several people in Gulf nations allied with the United States.
American troops are dying in a war that Congress never authorized.
Congress Must Act — Because the Constitution Demands It
On Capitol Hill, Democratic lawmakers and a handful of Republicans are reportedly drafting a war powers resolution to challenge President Trump’s unilateral decision to go to war.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib highlighted the toll: over 555 Iranians dead, at least 165 of them at a girls’ school, and American service members killed in action.
The Not Above the Law coalition put it bluntly: Trump launched this war without congressional approval, in direct violation of the Constitution.
Article I, Section 8 is clear — only Congress can declare war.
No declaration was made.
No authorization was given.
This is an unconstitutional power grab, and every member of Congress who stays silent is complicit.
What Happens Next Matters
Israeli political analyst Ori Goldberg offered a chilling assessment of the mood in Israel: there is a sense of triumph — not because of concern for the Iranian people, but because the genocide in Gaza has already devalued human life in the region. (video)
That’s the trajectory we’re on. The same playbook. The same disregard for civilian life. The same hollow justifications.
And unless Congress exercises its constitutional authority and the international community demands accountability, the death toll will keep rising — and the victims will keep being children, families, and ordinary people who never asked for this war.
