Iran is now reeling from a wave of air strikes by US-Israel combine that have left nearly 800 dead, including many children. The toll includes the 165 schoolgirls who were killed in Israeli air strike landed in the heart of an elementary girls school in the southern city of Minab.
According to reports published by The Red Crescent Society in Iran a total of 787 Iranian residents have lost their lives in the last 72 hours following the beginning of military operations last Saturday.
Independent monitors from Human Rights Activists in Iran have recorded 742 civilian fatalities, noting that 176 of those killed were children.
While, in their official communication, the United States of America and Israel have maintained that they are not targeting civilian institutes, local reports from Iran paint a completely different and horrifying story of mutilated bodies and destroyed schools and hospitals in different parts of Iran.
Tragedy at Minab Girls’ School
One of the most Gaza-like incidents in Iran took place in the city of Minab, where a primary girls school was destroyed by an Israeli air strike.
In the latest development, thousands of grieving parents, family members and mourners filled a public square in Minab on Tuesday to conduct a mass funeral for the fallen children and staff members.
Footage of the mass funeral circulated on social media platforms like X and Iranian media outlets showcased women wrapped in black chadors weeping heavily at the premises while men waved the national flag of Iran.
One of the more viral clips from the incident also shows a grieving mother holding a portrait of her daughter named Arena at a makeshift stage at the site of the funeral, describing the death of her child as evidence of the international crimes being committed in the war.
The grieving crowd responded with chants directed against the US and Israel, Mathrubhumi reported.
Reacting to the devastation, Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi described the scene as a cold-blooded murder of innocents, sharing images of fresh graves and stating the victims’ bodies were severely mutilated.
9 hospitals hit
Beyond educational institutes and public offices the Iranian Parliament Health Commission claims nine hospitals have been hit by USA and Israel in the past few hours.
While the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has accused both nations (Israel and USA) of indiscriminately and ruthlessly striking residential and cultural zones, the Israeli military maintains that a strike near Gandhi Hospital in Tehran was not an attack on the facility itself.
The US government has distanced itself from the reports. Speaking to reporters, secretary of State Marco Rubio recently stated that the US does not intentionally target schools and referred investigation queries to the Department of War.
Notably, the interception of retaliatory strikes by Iran on US bases in Bahrain, UAE, Qatar by these countries themselves has also led to the death of multiple civilians. Four deaths were reported in UAE in light that were reported to have been caused by the debris created from Iran’s attack on the UAE.