Iran’s Health Ministry said on Sunday that US-Israeli strikes in the country have killed at least 223 women and 202 children since the US and Israel launched the war on February 28.
The ministry said that the toll includes three pregnant women and 12 children under the age of five. The majority of the children were killed in the opening hours of the war when a US strike hit an elementary school in Minab, southern Iran, killing more than 100 students.
The numbers from Iran’s Health Ministry align with figures from the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), a US-based, US-funded rights group that’s highly critical of the Iranian government. The group said on Sunday night that since the war started, 1,330 civilians had been killed in strikes, including 206 children.
The HRANA has also said that 1,122 military personnel have been killed, putting its overall death toll significantly higher than anything the Iranian government has put out.
US and Israeli strikes continued across Iran on Monday, and, according to Iranian state media, more women and children were killed. Iran’s PressTV reported that a strike hit a home in central Iran and killed a three-day-old baby boy, a two-year-old girl, and their mother and grandmother.
The Iranian Red Crescent reported that strikes also hit residential areas in Tehran on Monday. “These photos show an airstrike on a residential area in Tehran and the efforts of Red Crescent aid workers to rescue the affected people and families,” the group said in a post on X showing photos of its rescue workers responding to the strikes.
