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UN experts "deeply disturbed" by child deaths in escalating middle east conflict
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on March 4, 2026
2 min readLast updated: March 4, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
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Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on March 4, 2026
2 min readLast updated: March 4, 2026
UN experts condemned a missile strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ school in Minab, Iran, which reportedly killed between 165 and 180 children during initial US‑Israeli attacks on February 28, 2026. The UN demanded an impartial investigation.
By Olivia Le Poidevin
GENEVA, March 4 (Reuters) - A United Nations panel of experts said on Wednesday it was "deeply disturbed" by the deaths of children, after the bombing of the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls' school in southern Iran, which it said killed more than 160 children, citing reports.
The school in Minab was hit on Saturday, the first day of U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday that the country's forces "would not deliberately target a school".
Israel has said it is investigating the incident.
"The Committee is alarmed by reports of strikes on civilian infrastructure, including schools and hospitals, which have injured and traumatised children, and claimed many young lives," the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child said in a statement.
Children must be protected from war, the committee added.
The U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child is a body of 18 independent experts that monitors implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which protects children’s rights to education and safeguards them from violence.
On Tuesday, the U.N. human rights office urged what it called "the forces behind a deadly attack on a girls' school in Iran" to investigate and share insights into the incident, without saying who it believed was responsible.
Iran's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Ali Bahreini, had raised the issue with U.N. human rights chief Volker Turk in a March 1 letter, calling the attack "unjustifiable" and "criminal".
(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin, additional reporting by Emma Farge, editing by Kirsti Knolle and Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
The UN experts were concerned about the bombing of a girls' school in Minab, Iran, which resulted in the death of 160 children.
The bombing of the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ school took place on Saturday, the first day of U.S. and Israeli attacks against Iran.
According to UN experts, 160 children were killed in the bombing.
The violence is escalating across the Middle East, with specific mention of Iran in this incident.
The incident was reported by Olivia Le Poidevin and edited by Kirsti Knolle, according to Reuters.
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