Global Outrage After Deadly Bombing of Iranian Girls’ School

The UN’s education agency (UNESCO) warned that officials were “deeply alarmed” after the bombing of a girls’ elementary school in southern Iran over the weekend killed at least 168 children, according to Iranian state media.

“The killing of pupils in a place dedicated to learning constitutes a grave violation of the protection afforded to schools under international humanitarian law,” UNESCO said in a statement on Sunday, March 1, 2026.

“Attacks against educational institutions endanger students and teachers and undermine the right to education,” UNESCO added.

Iranian state-affiliated agency news IRNA reported that an Israeli attack on Iran’s Shajareh Taybeh Girls’ Elementary School also injured 95 other people, citing a government spokesperson. An Israeli military spokesperson said they were “checking” reports of the strike.

Elsewhere, three students have been killed in the capital Tehran and in northern Iran, according to IRNA. Other rights agencies, including the international non-profit, Save the Children, repeated demands for the protection of “civilians and civilian infrastructure” from attack.

“Every war is a war on children, and the world cannot stand by and watch children be killed or injured,” Inger Ashing, the CEO of Save the Children, said in a statement Monday, March 2.

(Source: Abbas Zakeri/Mehr News/WANA/Reuters)