More than 1,100 children have been killed or wounded across the Middle East since the United States and Israel launched their war on Iran at the end of February, according to new figures from the United Nations Children’s Fund, which warned that the humanitarian consequences for children across the region are rapidly escalating.
UNICEF released the figures Wednesday while calling for an immediate diplomatic resolution to the expanding conflict. The agency reported that at least 200 children have died in Iran, 91 in Lebanon, four in Israel, and one in Kuwait since the war began.
“The situation is becoming catastrophic for millions of children across the region,” UNICEF said in a statement.
“These numbers will likely climb as the violence intensifies and spreads.”
Humanitarian organizations say the largest concentration of child deaths occurred during the February 28 bombing of the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ school in the Iranian city of Minab. The strike took place during the first wave of joint U.S. and Israeli attacks at the start of the war.
The bombing killed an estimated 175 people, most of them students between the ages of 7 and 12. Iranian officials have said the overall death toll from the war now exceeds 1,300 people.
Evidence emerging from early investigations has increasingly pointed toward U.S. involvement in the strike.
According to reporting cited in the source material, a preliminary military investigation found that U.S. forces likely created the strike’s target coordinates using outdated military maps. Officials familiar with the investigation told NBC News that the bombing decision was based on intelligence identifying the site as an Iranian military compound.
Iranian officials said the building had last been used for military purposes more than a decade earlier. In the years since, the facility had been converted into a girls’ elementary school.
The building reportedly displayed visible indications that it was an educational facility, including colorful murals and small sports fields that were visible in satellite imagery.
Officials familiar with the investigation said the strike itself was intentional in the sense that the location was deliberately targeted. However, investigators believe planners may not have known the site had become a school.
The precise step in the target vetting process where the intelligence failure occurred remains unclear.
President Donald Trump initially suggested that Iran may have carried out the strike. Speaking to reporters earlier in the week, Trump said, “In my opinion, based on what I’ve seen, that was done by Iran.”
He continued, “Because they are very inaccurate, as you know, with their munitions. They have no accuracy whatsoever. It was done by Iran.”
Weapons analysts who reviewed footage of the attack have challenged that claim.
Former U.S. Army explosive ordnance disposal technician and Bellingcat journalist Trevor Ball said the visual evidence suggests the strike involved a U.S. Tomahawk Land Attack Missile.
“The footage appears to contradict President Donald Trump’s claim it was an Iranian missile that hit the school,” Ball said.
Ball also noted that Iran is not believed to possess Tomahawk missiles. The United States, he said, “is the only participant in the war that is known to have” those weapons.
Reporting cited in the source material also noted that missile debris recovered at the site appeared to have been manufactured by a weapons contractor in Ohio.
When asked later about reporting that a preliminary investigation linked the strike to the United States, Trump told journalists, “I don’t know about it.”
International organizations have expressed alarm at the attack and the broader impact of the war on children.
UNESCO, the United Nations agency responsible for education and cultural protection, said it was “deeply alarmed” by the strike.
“The killing of pupils in a place dedicated to learning constitutes a grave violation of the protection afforded to schools under international humanitarian law,” UNESCO said.
“Attacks against educational institutions endanger students and teachers and undermine the right to education,” the agency added.
Humanitarian groups say the war has also damaged civilian infrastructure essential to children’s survival.
“Civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, schools, and water and sanitation systems—upon which children depend to survive—have been attacked, damaged, or destroyed by parties to the conflict,” UNICEF said.
“Nothing justifies the killing and maiming of children, or the destruction and disruption of essential services that children depend on.”
The agency also warned that such actions may violate international law.
“Grave violations against children in armed conflict can constitute violations of international law, including international humanitarian law, and international human rights law,” UNICEF said.
The war has also displaced large numbers of children across the region.
In Lebanon, Israeli attacks targeting Hezbollah have continued despite a November 2024 ceasefire agreement. According to Mercy Corps, nearly 800,000 people have been forced from their homes in Lebanon, including around 200,000 children.
The Lebanese government has reported that at least 570 people have been killed and 1,444 injured.
UNICEF said the broader conflict has disrupted education for millions of children.
“Widespread disruption to education has left millions of children out of school across the region, while hundreds of thousands of children have been displaced by unrelenting bombardment,” the agency said.
The organization urged all parties involved in the war “to take all necessary precautions in the choice of means and methods of warfare to minimize harm to civilians, including by avoiding the use of explosive weapons that disproportionally affect children.”
“The region’s children—all 200 million of them—are counting on the world to act quickly,” UNICEF said.
The Minab school bombing has also prompted political pressure in Washington.
Several Democratic and independent senators sent a letter Wednesday to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth expressing “grave concern” over the attack and demanding answers about the circumstances surrounding the strike.
“The majority of those killed in the strikes were girls between the ages of 7 and 12 years old,” the senators wrote.
They warned that attacks on civilian targets during the war “are not taking place in a vacuum.”
The letter also criticized Hegseth’s rhetoric about the military campaign.
“As Secretary of Defense, you set the tone for U.S. military conduct, and your recent comments send a clear message of disregard for the laws of war,” the senators wrote.
“This rhetoric only serves to endanger civilians, including American citizens, in the region and around the globe,” they added.
The lawmakers also said the administration’s actions and statements “suggest the administration has abandoned its duty to protect civilians.”
Calls for international accountability have also emerged in response to the strike.
Gordon Brown, the former United Kingdom prime minister who now serves as the United Nations special envoy for global education, wrote that “the world will now need stronger mechanisms to ensure accountability.”
Brown suggested creating a body that would complement the International Criminal Court and focus specifically on crimes against children, including “the bombing of schools, abductions of pupils, and militias that enslave boys and girls.”
As the conflict continues and casualties mount, UNICEF warned that the future of millions of children across the Middle East remains at risk.
“The region’s children—all 200 million of them—are counting on the world to act quickly,” the agency said.
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