BENEATH THE RUBBLE OF MINAB: RESCUERS RECALL HORRIFIC AFTERMATH OF SCHOOL STRIKE

October 1, 2026

Rescuers who searched the ruins of a girls’ school in Minab, southern Iran, have recounted harrowing scenes following a missile strike that killed more than 150 people, most of them children. Their accounts have brought renewed attention to the devastating civilian toll of the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran.

The attack on Shajareh Tayyebeh school took place on February 28, as the conflict began. The school building was struck during the school day, trapping students, teachers and others beneath collapsed concrete and debris. Rescue workers and local residents rushed to the site, attempting to locate survivors amid the destruction.

Those involved in the recovery described finding severely mutilated remains, fragments of bodies and children’s belongings scattered through the wreckage. The graphic accounts, including descriptions of rescuers struggling to identify victims, reflected the extreme devastation at the site and the trauma experienced by those involved in the search.

The strike reportedly killed at least 156 people, including around 120 children, although casualty estimates have varied across accounts. Images and videos from the aftermath showed damaged classrooms, collapsed sections of the building, bloodstained school materials and families waiting anxiously for news of missing children.

Investigations and media reconstructions have raised serious questions about how the school was identified and approved as a target. Reports have pointed to outdated intelligence, rushed targeting procedures and failures to adequately distinguish the school from a nearby military compound. The United States has not publicly released a complete account of its investigation or a final explanation of the strike.

A United Nations fact-finding mission has said there are reasonable grounds to believe that the US was responsible for the attack and that it may constitute a war crime. The findings have intensified calls for accountability, while the circumstances and responsibility surrounding the strike remain central to ongoing scrutiny.

The destruction of the Minab school has become one of the conflict’s most consequential civilian tragedies, raising urgent questions about the protection of children, the obligations of armed forces under international humanitarian law and the safeguards required to prevent schools and other civilian sites from being struck during military operations.