The U.S. and Israel's air war with Iran, now in its fourth month, has killed thousands since launching in late February. But few attacks have left a deeper mark than the strike on Shajarah Tayyebeh Elementary School in Minab, southern Iran, where authorities say more than 150 people were killed, most of them schoolchildren.
The attack occurred on February 28, the opening day of the coordinated U.S.-Israeli air campaign. The Pentagon has confirmed that American-made Tomahawk missiles were used in the strike but says its investigation into the incident is ongoing and maintains that the school was located inside an active military base. Local residents strongly dispute this characterization.
What the Right Is Saying
Pentagon officials have defended the strike while acknowledging the tragic loss of civilian life. In a statement, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the target was assessed to be within a legitimate military complex and that the U.S. follows strict targeting protocols. "We take every measure to avoid civilian casualties, but this regime has embedded its military operations in populated areas," he said.
Republican lawmakers have largely backed the administration's position. Senator Lindsay Graham of South Carolina argued that Iran's history of using human shields makes such incidents regrettable but unavoidable. "The Iranian regime puts weapons depots next to schools, hospitals near command centers. They do this deliberately because they know it complicates our targeting decisions," Graham said in a floor speech.
Israeli military officials, who participated in the joint operation, have similarly defended the strike as hitting a legitimate military facility adjacent to a school building. The Israeli Defense Forces released satellite imagery showing what they described as military infrastructure within the walled complex that also housed the elementary school.
What the Left Is Saying
Human rights groups and progressive foreign policy critics have called for a full independent investigation into the Minab attack. Representative Pramila Jayapal, speaking at a congressional briefing, said the images from the school site demand answers. "When we see 120 children killed in a single strike, the American people deserve to know whether proper precautions were taken and whether international humanitarian law was followed," she said.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies released an analysis noting that strikes on educational facilities are subject to heightened scrutiny under the laws of armed conflict. "Even if a site has a proximate relationship to military activity, the presence of children creates additional obligations under the Geneva Conventions," the report stated. Organizations including Amnesty International have called on both Washington and Tehran to grant independent investigators access to the site.
Families of victims who spoke with PBS NewsHour correspondent Reza Sayah expressed grief that has not diminished in the weeks since the attack. Asma Mogheirnin, a Minab resident, said through an interpreter: "The sounds of children are still here for me. I can still hear them in my mind. Ever since this happened, my heart has been broken."
What the Numbers Show
According to Iranian authorities cited by PBS NewsHour: 168 total victims of the airstrike, including 120 students between ages 6 and 11; two missiles fired minutes apart struck the facility; one child, Makan Nasiri, remains unaccounted for despite ongoing recovery efforts. The Pentagon has not released its own casualty assessment as investigations continue.
The Minab school is located in Hormozgan Province, approximately 1,000 miles southeast of Tehran. Satellite imagery analyzed by independent researchers shows a walled complex containing the two-story elementary school along with a pharmacy, cafe, and cultural center. Residents told Sayah the military facility that previously occupied the site was abandoned more than a decade ago.
The U.S.-Israel air campaign against Iran has now lasted over 100 days, according to casualty tracking by international organizations. Estimates of total casualties vary widely due to restricted access to conflict zones, with figures ranging from several thousand to over ten thousand depending on sourcing methodology.
The Bottom Line
The Minab school strike remains a flashpoint in the broader U.S.-Israel-Iran conflict. The core dispute centers on whether the facility was legitimately targeted as part of an active military installation or whether civilian infrastructure was improperly struck, resulting in mass casualties among children.
What happens next depends largely on the outcome of ongoing Pentagon investigations and whether international bodies are granted access to verify competing claims about the site's status. Families of victims continue their nightly vigils at the Minab cemetery, where all 167 identified remains have been buried. Volunteers persist in sifting through debris for any trace of Makan Nasiri.
The attack has intensified scrutiny of U.S. targeting protocols and Iran's practice of maintaining military assets near civilian structures, a dynamic that observers say creates inherent tension between military necessity and civilian protection obligations under international law.