Human Rights Watch Urges War Crime Probe Into Iran School Strike as Civilian Death Toll Mounts in Iran War

Human Rights Watch has called for a war-crimes investigation into a February 28 strike on a primary school in southern Iran that reportedly killed scores of civilians, including many children, warning that the attack raises serious questions about the conduct of US-Israeli military operations during the expanding Iran war.

Representational Image: RybarMena

The rights group said the strike hit the Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School in the town of Minab in Hormozgan province shortly before midday, when students and teachers were inside the building. Iranian authorities have blamed a US-Israeli coalition strike for the attack, while neither Washington nor Tel Aviv has formally accepted responsibility.

Human Rights Watch said its analysis of videos, photographs and satellite imagery suggests that the school was struck during a broader wave of attacks on an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps naval compound nearby. Researchers said at least eight structures across the compound appear to have been directly hit by munitions, including the school and a medical clinic, indicating a pattern of precision strikes rather than accidental impacts.

The organization reviewed 14 videos and photographs recorded immediately after the strike and during rescue operations, as well as footage from funerals, in addition to examining roughly 40 satellite images spanning more than two decades and new high-resolution imagery captured after the attack. The imagery shows multiple circular entry points in rooftops across buildings in the compound, consistent with guided munitions entering structures before detonating.

Human Rights Watch said the presence of the school within the broader IRGC compound did not automatically make it a lawful military target. Satellite imagery shows that the school was physically separated from the rest of the compound by an internal wall and had its own entrance to the street. Researchers said they found no evidence that the school was being used for military purposes at the time of the strike.

“A prompt and thorough investigation is needed into this attack, including whether those responsible should have known that a school was there and that it would be full of children and teachers,” Sophia Jones, an open-source researcher with Human Rights Watch’s Digital Investigations Lab, said in a statement. She said those responsible for an unlawful attack should be held to account, including through prosecutions for war crimes.

Under the laws of armed conflict, attacks are prohibited if the expected civilian harm would be excessive in relation to the anticipated military advantage. Even when a legitimate military target is present nearby, forces must take all feasible precautions to minimize civilian casualties.

The casualty figures remain disputed. Iranian state media said the death toll had reached 168 by March 4, though Human Rights Watch said it has not been able to independently verify the full number because Iran’s nationwide internet shutdown and communications restrictions have made it difficult to safely contact witnesses or families of victims.

Researchers said they were able to confirm the identities of dozens of victims through lists published by local authorities, funerary records and visual evidence from photographs and videos circulated after the attack. Many of those identified appear to be schoolchildren.

The organization said it wrote to the US and Israeli militaries seeking clarification about the strike. An Israeli military spokesperson responded that it was “not aware of any strikes in the area,” while the United States had not formally replied at the time the report was published.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said during a March 4 briefing that the incident was being examined and insisted that American forces do not deliberately target civilian infrastructure. At the same briefing, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, indicated that US naval forces from the USS Abraham Lincoln strike group had been conducting operations along Iran’s southeastern coast, an area that includes Minab.

Human Rights Watch also said the broader environment of the conflict is complicating independent verification. Internet traffic in Iran dropped by roughly 98 percent after the February 28 strikes, according to network monitoring platforms, leaving the country under a near-total communications blackout that has severely restricted access to information.

The rights group said the United States should immediately determine whether its forces were involved in the strike and make the findings public. If US forces were responsible, it said, Washington should investigate the operational failures that led to the attack, hold those responsible accountable and ensure that safeguards are strengthened to prevent similar incidents.

Schools and other educational facilities are protected civilian objects under international humanitarian law and lose that protection only if they are used for military purposes. Human Rights Watch said it had seen no evidence that the Shajareh Tayyebeh school was being used in that way.