Iran ends recovery operation at school struck in US-Israeli attack, death toll stands at 165

By Syed Zafar Mehdi

TEHRAN, Iran (AA) - Iranian officials said Monday that the recovery operation at a primary school hit by an Israeli-US strike in Minab city in the southern Hormozgan province has concluded, with the final death toll at 165.

Minab Governor Mohammad Rademahr said in statements carried by Iranian state media that emergency response teams, members of local voluntary paramilitary groups, and residents took part in the debris-removal operations at Shajareh Tayabeh School.

The school was struck on Saturday morning, when the US and Israel launched large-scale bombings across multiple provinces in Iran.

The attack struck the school while classes were underway, reducing the building to rubble. It took more than 24 hours for local disaster management officials to clear the wreckage and recover all the bodies.

Rademahr said that the bodies of 165 students were retrieved from under the rubble.

He described the attack as a “malicious act” by Israel and the US, saying it once again demonstrated “a historical pattern of child-killing by the Zionist (Israeli) regime.”

He said the “cowardly act” in Minab reaffirmed that Israel would not cease what he described as their “targeting of children.”

In addition to the 165 deaths, 96 others were injured in the attack, most of them students.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi both condemned the attack in separate statements.

Rademahr said the funeral procession for the slain students will be held on Tuesday.

The US and Israel launched an attack on Iran on Saturday, killing several top Iranian leaders, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Tehran retaliated with a series of drone and missile attacks that targeted Israel, US assets and several Gulf countries.

Iranian officials have refused calls to resume diplomacy after Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi proposed a fresh round of talks in a social media post.

The US-Israeli attack came in the midst of indirect nuclear negotiations between Tehran and Washington, mediated by Oman.