Most wars take a while to produce the event they are remembered for. This one managed it before lunchtime on the first day.
How it began
On the morning of Saturday 28 February 2026, the United States and Israel launched coordinated attacks on Iranian targets. The American operation was named Epic Fury; the Israeli one Roaring Lion. Strikes began at about a quarter to ten local time and ran across several provinces.
By about 10:23, the fourth building hit in one area of Minab, in Hormozgan province in the south, was an elementary school. That strike killed 156 people.
Who was involved
- Striking: the United States and Israel.
- Retaliating: Iran, with missile and drone attacks across the region.
- Drawn in: Lebanese Hezbollah, Iraqi Popular Mobilisation Forces and other aligned militias.
- Exposed: regional states hosting US bases, and Israeli civilian areas.
The shape of the fighting
| Phase | From | What it consisted of |
|---|---|---|
| Opening offensive | 28 February | US and Israeli strikes on Iranian military and government infrastructure |
| Iranian retaliation | Late February | Missile and drone attacks on Israel and on regional targets |
| Regional spread | Early March | Attacks involving aligned militias; states hosting US bases drawn in |
The attacks that killed the most civilians
Several incidents in the first months produced significant civilian casualties on both sides.
- Minab school, Hormozgan. Reported tolls range from 148 to 168; the official Iranian figure is 156. The school stood near a military complex.
- Beit Shemesh, Israel. Nine killed and about 65 injured when a missile struck a synagogue and nearby homes.
- Lamerd sports hall, Iran. 21 killed, including children at volleyball practice.
- Kuhestak wedding, Iran. At least five killed and more than 50 injured in a US strike.
These are the incidents that were documented well enough to be listed individually. They are not a casualty total. Each reached the record because something made it legible: a fixed civilian site, a register of who was present, or enough surviving witnesses to establish a sequence. Strikes on open ground, on vehicles, or in areas nobody could reach afterwards leave much thinner traces, and there is no reason to think they were rarer.
Why there is no reliable overall figure
No aggregate civilian death toll for this war has been established by a body positioned to produce one. Individual incidents are documented; the sum is not. That is the normal state of a war while it is still running, and it is exactly the position Iraq was in for years. How counting eventually catches up, and why the figures differ, is set out here.
Why one strike dominates the record
Wars produce many incidents and remember few. Minab has held attention for reasons that are partly about the event and partly about the evidence.
It was a school, at a known time, with a register. The munition was identifiable on video. The pattern of a second strike on the room survivors had been moved to gave it a specific and legible shape. And four independent investigations plus a UN mission reached the same conclusion within months. Attribution rarely moves that fast.
Reading a war that has not finished
Everything on this page carries a caveat that pages about Iraq do not. This conflict was still under way while the archive was being written, and accounts of an ongoing war are the least reliable kind of record.
What usually changes later
- Casualty figures move, generally upward, as identification catches up and areas become reachable.
- Attribution shifts when targeting records surface, sometimes years afterwards.
- Early official statements get withdrawn quietly rather than corrected loudly.
So the figures here are the best available, not the last word, and each is attributed to whoever produced it. Where a number is contested this archive gives the range and the reason, which is the same standard applied to Iraqi casualty counts.
What the Iran war has produced so far
A documented atrocity with a named death toll, a UN finding of reasonable grounds to believe war crimes were committed, an internal investigation that had not reported after seven months, and no charges.
That sequence will be familiar to anyone who has read the rest of this archive. The technology of verification has improved beyond recognition since 2007; the machinery for acting on what it establishes has not moved at all. The two cases set side by side make the point more precisely than any summary can.
Questions people ask about this
When did the 2026 Iran war start?
How many civilians have been killed?
Where this comes from
- List of attacks during the 2026 Iran war — Wikipedia
- 2026 Minab school attack — Wikipedia
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