{"id":322268,"date":"2026-03-05T00:41:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T00:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/322268\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T00:41:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T00:41:10","slug":"what-we-know-about-the-strike-on-a-school-in-iran-as-the-death-toll-rises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/322268\/","title":{"rendered":"What we know about the strike on a school in Iran as the death toll rises"},"content":{"rendered":"

The elementary school called with an urgent message about her son. \u201cThe war had started,\u201d she was told. Come pick him up.<\/p>\n

The mother, who asked not to be identified, said she had only just dropped the boy off and couldn\u2019t leave immediately since she had patients to see in her job as a midwife. Then the earth shook. And she ran.<\/p>\n

It was too late. Three airstrikes had hit Shajareh Tayyebeh elementary school<\/a> in Minab in southern Iran, killing 168 people, according to the town\u2019s mayor. Many of them were children. One of them was her son.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy the time we arrived, the entire school had collapsed on top of the children,\u201d the mother told NBC News. \u201cPeople were pulling out children\u2019s arms and legs. People were pulling out severed heads.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe site of a strike on an elementary school in Minab, in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province, on Saturday.Ali Najafi \/ AFP – Getty Images<\/p>\n

Four days later, grief and outrage grew over the school deaths, which have become a flash point for opposition to the U.S. and Israeli strikes<\/a>. There are also anger and uncertainty over the fact that no one has admitted responsibility for the most publicized civilian casualties since the start of the war. <\/p>\n

A large crowd gathered to bury the children Tuesday, video and images published by state media show. There is a mass burial with rows and rows of what appear to be individual graves dug side by side. <\/p>\n

The U.S. and Israel have since hit thousands of targets in the country, killing the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei<\/a>, among nearly 800 other people, according to the Iranian Red Crescent Society. <\/p>\n

Tehran is striking back<\/a>, hitting Israel and several other countries in the region allied with the U.S., including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain. Six U.S. service members were among those killed<\/a> in its counterassault, as well as 11 people in Israel, while dozens have been killed in Israeli strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon. <\/p>\n

\"TheSmoke rising from an elementary school in Minab after an airstrike.Alex Mita \/ IRIB TV via AFP – Getty Images<\/p>\n

Asked about the deaths Monday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that U.S. forces \u201cwould not deliberately target a school,\u201d adding that the Defense Department \u201cwould be investigating \u200bthat if that was our strike.\u201d<\/p>\n

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday: \u201cAll that I know is that we\u2019re investigating that. Of course, we never target civilians, but we\u2019re taking a look at investigating that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the weekend, U.S. Central Command said it was looking into reports of civilian deaths. The Israeli military has so far declined to comment. <\/p>\n

\"AftermathCivilians and rescue forces in the rubble after a strike on a school in Minab, Iran, on Saturday.Abbas Zakeri\/Mehr News\/WANA \/ via Reuters<\/p>\n

Both the Minab official and the mother who spoke to NBC News said the school facility was built on a Revolutionary Guard base. The base closed around 15 years ago, and all military personnel were moved, although the school stayed open, they said. <\/p>\n

Satellite imagery from 2011 appears to show the building as part of the same compound, before it was fenced off later. <\/p>\n

\"AftermathThe aftermath of the strike Saturday.Abbas Zakeri \/ Mehr News via Reuters<\/p>\n

Ali Farhadi, spokesperson for Iran\u2019s Education Ministry, said Sunday that three attacks struck the school, which he said had 264 students.<\/p>\n

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Saturday on X<\/a> that the school was \u201cbombed in broad daylight, when packed with young pupils.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese crimes against the Iranian People will not go unanswered,\u201d he warned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The elementary school called with an urgent message about her son. \u201cThe war had started,\u201d she was told.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-322268","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}