A U.S.-Israeli strike destroys a girls' school in Minab and kills at least 168

The Minab Elementary School for Girls is located in Minab, a port city in Hormozgan Province in southern Iran near the Strait of Hormuz. The school served girls from first through sixth grade. On March 1, 2026 — the second day of Operation Epic Fury — the school was struck at 10:45 a.m. local time. The strike destroyed the building's load-bearing walls and caused the roof to collapse across occupied classrooms and hallways. At least 168 students and staff members were killed. Iranian state media reported the toll at 180 dead and 95 injured; independent verification of the full count was not possible as rescue workers were still removing rubble on March 3.

The CCCoordinating Council of Iranian Teachers' Trade Associations said the school administration had announced the closure of the school that morning after the war began — but that the time between the announcement and the explosion was too short for most families to arrive. Children who had come to school before the announcement were still in the building when the strike hit. The council described children trapped under debris, the majority of whom were in common corridors between classrooms during a period change.

Neither the United States military nor the Israeli Defense Forces officially acknowledged responsibility for the strike by March 3. The IDF said it was not aware of any operations in the Minab area. The U.S. Central Command said it was looking into reports of the strike and that the protection of civilians remained of utmost importance. The gap between both countries' denials and the physical evidence of the destroyed school created a credibility problem for both militaries: Minab is in a region where no Iranian military infrastructure has been publicly identified.

The institutional context for the strike was Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's statement to reporters, made before the Minab attack, that there were no rules of engagement for the Iran operation. Rules of engagement are the operational orders that tell military commanders what force they can use and what targets they can strike — they are the primary mechanism through which armed forces implement civilian protection requirements under the Geneva Conventions. Hegseth's statement was described by NPR Pentagon correspondent TBTom Bowman as having outraged some military professionals. The absence of rules of engagement means there is no documented internal standard against which the Minab strike can be measured.

UNESCO issued a formal statement the morning of March 2 calling the Minab strike 'a grave violation of the protection afforded to schools under international humanitarian law.' The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization called on all parties to uphold Geneva Convention protections for educational institutions. Under Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions, civilian objects including schools may not be intentionally attacked. An attack on a school that serves no military purpose at the time is a war crime under international law.

Iranian President MPMasoud Pezeshkian said the attack 'will never be erased from the historical memory of our nation.' His government formally notified the UN Secretary-General and called on the Security Council to convene an emergency session on civilian casualties. The Iranian government released names and photographs of the children killed — a deliberate evidentiary strategy to build an international record for potential future accountability proceedings.

The International Committee of the Red Cross expressed grave concern about civilian casualties across Iran in the first four days of the conflict and called for all parties to uphold IHL protections. The ICRC specifically noted that schools, hospitals, and places of worship retain their protected status under international law regardless of the circumstances of the broader conflict. The ICRC's call was echoed by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Médecins Sans Frontières.

The Safe Schools Declaration, endorsed by more than 110 countries, commits signatories to protecting educational institutions in conflict and investigating attacks on schools. The United States has not signed the Safe Schools Declaration. Israel signed but has faced criticism for its record in Gaza. Neither country's non-recognition or signature status changes their obligations under the Geneva Conventions, which both have ratified.

The Minab strike occurred one day before Melania Trump presided over a UN Security Council meeting on the theme of children, technology, and education in conflict — a session tied to her 'Fostering the Future Together' initiative. No Security Council member raised the Minab strike during the formal session. The visual juxtaposition — photographs of Melania in the Council chamber circulating alongside photographs of the school's rubble — was referenced by news outlets from the BBC to Al Jazeera as emblematic of a deeper contradiction in U.S. foreign policy.

The accountability landscape for the Minab strike is structurally limited. The United States is not a party to the Rome Statute and does not recognize International Criminal Court jurisdiction over its forces. This position was reinforced by the American Servicemembers' Protection Act, which authorizes the president to use military force to free Americans detained by the ICC. Israel ratified but then withdrew from the Rome Statute. Congress has the authority to demand a classified briefing on civilian casualty accounting and to investigate whether U.S. forces were involved — authority it had not exercised by March 3.