The first tragic reports of civilian casualties are coming after extensive Israeli airstrikes on Iranian territory. According to Iranian state media, 24 girls were killed in a direct attack on a primary school in the south of the country.
Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported that an Israeli missile hit a girls’ primary school in the city of Minab, located in Hormozgan province in southern Iran.
According to the first available information from the field, the target of the attack was the elementary school “Shajereh Taybeh”.
At the time of the impact, 170 girls were attending classes in the morning shift. Iranian sources claim that the school was the direct target of the attack. Rescue teams are on the ground, and dramatic operations are currently underway to remove the rubble and provide assistance to the survivors.
First, the Iranian media announced that 5 schoolgirls had been killed, and later the information was updated and apparently the number of victims is much higher.
While pictures of the destroyed civilian facility are coming from Iran, Israel is still analyzing the results of its military operation.
An unnamed Israeli military official, who spoke to New York Times reporters on condition of anonymity in accordance with military rules, said the Israeli military was currently evaluating the success of its initial strikes. According to him, a number of targets were hit, including locations where people who are considered to be “key personnel of the Iranian war machine” are located.
The official declined to provide details on the identity of those targets or specific locations. He also confirmed that Iran, in response to these attacks, has so far fired dozens of ballistic missiles towards the territory of Israel, thus entering a new, extremely dangerous phase of the conflict.
