The school building destroyed in Iran that led to the deaths of more than 165 people, mostly children, is being turned into a museum as a way to commemorate the victims.
Strikes launched Feb. 28 by U.S. and Israeli forces hit Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School in Minab in southeastern Iran, accounting for the deadliest single incident so far of this conflict. That was the first official day of the ongoing U.S. and Israeli military operation that is now on Day 17. Hundreds have been reported killed from the bombing, including 168 pupils aged between 7 and 12 years old in addition to 26 teachers and four parents.
"This school is a living document of the Americans' willingness to commit crimes and must be registered and documented for preservation in the historical memory of the Iranian people," the Iranian government said in a statement issued on Monday, according to reports.
No other information, including when and where the school would be rebuilt, has been released.
The cause of the bombing and questions of whether the U.S. and/or Israel targeted that specific building have drawn strong reactions worldwide. U.S. officials have said the bombing remains under investigation, providing little details if any as to how the target may have been misconstrued by armed forces.
The Associated Press, CNN and the New York Times have reported that the United States was responsible for the strike, alluding to outdated intelligence originally linking the now destroyed site to an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps base. That site previously had a school building on its land, potentially leading to the fatal results.
CNN and the New York Times both cited a preliminary investigation finding that the U.S. was responsible. The AP, according to an individual familiar with the matter, reported that U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) relied on outdated target coordinates provided by the Defense Intelligence Agency.
The AP also reviewed satellite images taken March 4, finding that the school roughly 680 miles away from Tehran was “consistent with a targeted airstrike” due to the pattern of damage visible in said photos.
Speculation amplified March 12, when new footage was uncovered showing what experts believed was a U.S.-made Tomahawk cruise missile hitting the building where the school was located.
Other reasons fingers have been pointed at the United States being responsible is the timing, as the strike occurred on a Saturday morning—representing the start of an Iranian school week.
The AP also reviewed publicly available satellite images depicting the now destroyed school building as formerly part of a military compound roughly until 2017, when walls separated the school and base. A watchtower was also removed.
Imagery also showed that the walls surrounding the building were painted with murals in vibrant colors, primarily blue and pink, so as to be seen from space, according to the AP.
U.S. CENTCOM spokesperson Capt. Tim Hawkins told the AP, when asked about the imagery and what is known about the site’s history, that “it would be inappropriate to comment given the incident is under investigation.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has said the same in media briefings.
Violation of 'Humanitarian Law'
President Donald Trump originally pinned blame on Iran for the bombing before walking back his claims, eventually landing on the same rhetoric of waiting for a full investigation to reveal the truth.
A group of 45 U.S. senators wrote a letter to the administration, specifically Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, asking whether the bombing was intentional or a mistake caused by bad intelligence.
They also questioned whether budget cuts that traditionally have focused on minimizing civilian deaths in military operations contributed to the incident.
“Under this administration, budgetary and personnel cuts at the Department have robbed military commands of crucial resources to prevent and respond to civilian casualties,” the letter reads in part.
Such cuts impacted CENTCOM and the Civilian Protection Center of Excellence, which was signed into law in 2022 as part of a Pentagon ambition to reduce death tolls from strikes, according to the AP.
The school strike has also been harshly rebuked by humanitarian groups, including Amnesty International and UNESCO, the United Nations’ education agency.
Amnesty International conducted its own investigation and released its findings on Monday, saying in a statement that its collected evidence “indicates that the school building was directly struck, alongside 12 other structures in an adjacent Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) compound, with guided weapons.”
They described the “failure by U.S. forces” as “a serious breach of international humanitarian law.”
“This harrowing attack on a school, with classrooms full of children, is a sickening illustration of the catastrophic and entirely predictable price civilians are paying during this armed conflict,” Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s senior director of research, advocacy, policy and campaigns, said in a statement.
“Schools must be places of safety and learning for children. Instead, this school in Minab became a site of mass killing. The U.S. authorities could, and should, have known it was a school building. Targeting a protected civilian object, such as a school, is strictly prohibited under international humanitarian law,” she added.
UNESCO offered similar sentiment, saying in its own statement on X that such attacks are an affront to education and the students and teachers involved.
“In accordance with its mandate and with United Nations Security Council Resolution 2601 (2021), UNESCO recalls the obligations of all parties to protect schools, students and education personnel,” the statement said in part.
