Double-Digit Schools and Hospitals Bombed in Iran, and American Media Stopped Counting After One

March 24, 2026

The World Health Organization has independently verified 18 separate attacks on healthcare facilities in Iran since February 28th. The Iranian Red Crescent Society has documented damage to 77 healthcare facilities and 65 schools across the country. Six hospitals have been fully evacuated, 11 healthcare workers killed and 55 wounded, 18 ambulances damaged. At least six schools have been individually named by journalists, human rights organizations, and UN agencies as having been struck by US or Israeli munitions in the first three weeks of Operation Epic Fury. The American public has heard about one of them.

Minab's Shajareh Tayyebeh girls' elementary school, where 165 people were killed on February 28th, received extensive coverage from CNN, the New York Times, the Washington Post, NPR, and the Associated Press once the evidence became impossible to deny: Bellingcat geolocated Tomahawk missile footage, eight munitions experts confirmed the missile type, Amnesty International published its own forensic analysis, and the Pentagon's own preliminary investigation admitted responsibility. Even then it took eleven days and a Pentagon admission before most outlets stopped hedging. But the moment they had their one school, the one "tragic mistake" they could frame as an aberration, they stopped their reporting on the bombing of civilian infrastructure.

The schools

On the same day the Minab school was destroyed, a missile struck near the Imam Reza Elementary School in Abyek, Qazvin province, and CCTV footage verified by Al Jazeera's digital investigations unit shows a schoolboy in the playground, a flash, windows shattering into the classroom, children running, and at least one child killed by debris. The footage has been publicly available since early March. No American outlet has mentioned it.

That same day in Lamerd, Fars province, a missile struck a sports hall at 5 PM where dozens of teenage girls were training, according to Drop Site News reporter Mahmoud Aslan, one of the only journalists to travel to the site. Local officials said at least 18 civilians were killed. A gym worker described windows shattering into thousands of fragments, black smoke, and then screaming. Drop Site named the dead: Zahra Gholami, 16 years old, Rabab Dehdasht, 15, Elahe Za'eri, 16. A father who lost his daughter arrived to find burning cars and rubble and the injured bleeding on the ground outside what had been a gymnasium. Neither CENTCOM nor the Israeli military responded to Drop Site's request for comment.

By March 5th, missiles struck two more schools in Parand, southwest of Tehran, with photos showing damage to classrooms and nearby residential buildings. The Shahid Hamedani School at Niloufar Square in Tehran was described by Iran's Foreign Ministry as having been "targeted by the American/Israeli aggressors," with video showing students in the building before the attack and then the building in ruins. Common Dreams ran the headline: "US-Israeli Bombs Strike 'The Fourth School in 6 Days' in Iran." An airstrike in Tehran's Narmak neighborhood damaged a high school and killed at least two children. The Shaqayeq Girls' School in Khomein was also struck. That is at least six individually named schools hit in three weeks, with the Red Crescent claiming the real number is 65.

The hospitals

The WHO numbers are harder to dismiss because no American editor can call the World Health Organization Iranian propaganda. Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus confirmed 18 verified attacks on healthcare and the deaths of eight medical workers, and separately confirmed six hospitals evacuated. Even Iran International, a Saudi-funded outlet with no incentive to carry water for Tehran, reported the WHO figures.

Gandhi Hospital in Tehran had its IVF department destroyed when strikes hit the state television complex across the street, with verified footage showing shattered walls and patients, including newborns, being evacuated. CNN verified this through its own satellite imagery analysis, then buried it inside a single investigative package rather than treating a bombed hospital as its own story. The Persian Gulf Martyrs Hospital in Bushehr was forced completely out of service, with severe damage to the neonatal ward. The Aboozar Children's Hospital in Ahvaz was damaged alongside three medical emergency centers across multiple provinces. The full Red Crescent accounting: 77 healthcare facilities affected, 29 clinical facilities damaged, 10 rendered inactive, 21 medical emergency centers damaged, 16 Red Crescent centers hit, 670 surgeries conducted to treat the wounded.

The Washington Post has not published a single standalone story about hospital damage in Iran.

The "fake news" media

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Fox News viewers that "there's only one entity in this conflict that never targets civilians, literally never." He also deployed the framing that has justified every school and hospital bombing Israel has carried out for two and a half years, telling reporters that Iranian forces "like the terrorist cowards they are, fire missiles from schools and hospitals... deliberately targeting innocents." The language is nearly word-for-word identical to IDF statements about Gaza, where "Hamas uses human shields" became the justification for striking al-Shifa Hospital, Kamal Adwan Hospital, and eventually every hospital in northern Gaza.

Once you establish the principle that civilian infrastructure near military activity becomes a legitimate target, the entire country becomes a free-fire zone. The media framing does the rest: one school gets the full treatment, the Pentagon calls it a "tragic mistake," and every subsequent school becomes a non-story because the narrative has already been set. The WHO verified 18 attacks on healthcare. Amnesty International confirmed a US Tomahawk at Minab. Human Rights Watch called for a war crimes investigation. Al Jazeera published CCTV footage from Qazvin. Drop Site sent reporters to Lamerd who named the dead girls and interviewed their families. All of it is publicly available, and none of it has made the evening news.

Zahra Gholami was sixteen years old. Rabab Dehdasht was fifteen. Elahe Za'eri was sixteen. A father who lost his daughter told Drop Site's reporter what happened, and Drop Site published it, and no American network picked it up, because eighteen dead teenage girls in an Iranian gymnasium do not become a story in the United States unless someone forces the Pentagon to admit they did it.

-- dingo__dog

Sources

Al Jazeera — “Iran demands international action after attacks impact hospitals, schools” The most thorough coverage of the broader pattern of civilian infrastructure damage. Named specific hospitals, reported Red Crescent tallies, and covered schools beyond Minab including the Parand and Narmak strikes. No American corporate outlet matched this scope.
Al Jazeera — “Iran reports hospitals, civilians affected during war with US, Israel” Published the Iranian Red Crescent's full accounting: 77 healthcare facilities affected, 29 clinical facilities damaged, 10 rendered inactive. The most comprehensive tally of healthcare damage from any outlet.
Al Jazeera — “Missiles fired by US, Israel hit two schools near Tehran: Iranian media” Reported the Parand school strikes that no American corporate outlet covered. Included photos of classroom debris. One of the only international outlets tracking school strikes beyond Minab.
Drop Site News — “After a Sports Hall in Iran Was Bombed, Witnesses Describe Chaos and 'Continuous Screaming'” The only outlet that sent a reporter to the Lamerd sports hall and named the dead teenage girls. Documented witness accounts, victim ages, and the scene in detail that no corporate outlet attempted to match.
Common Dreams — “US-Israeli Bombs Strike 'The Fourth School in 6 Days' in Iran” One of the only outlets tracking the cumulative count of school strikes. Reported on the Shahid Hamedani School in Tehran and placed it in the context of a pattern that corporate media refused to acknowledge.
CNN — “US strike likely hit Shajareh Tayyiba school in Minab, Iran due to outdated intelligence” Covered Minab extensively but framed it as an isolated targeting error caused by 'outdated intelligence.' CNN's own satellite analysis verified hospital damage at Gandhi Hospital but did not publish it as a standalone story. Zero coverage of Lamerd, Parand, Qazvin, or any other school.
New York Times — “Pentagon Investigation Points to U.S. Missile Hitting Iranian School” Reported the Pentagon's preliminary findings on Minab. Did not investigate or report on any other school strike in Iran. No standalone reporting on hospital damage.
Washington Post — “U.S. target list may have mistaken Iranian elementary school as military site” Broke the AI targeting angle on Minab, reporting the school appeared on a Palantir Maven Smart System target list. Did not investigate any other school strike. Has not published a single standalone story about hospital damage in Iran.
Fox News — “Hegseth announces Pentagon probe into deadly strike on Iranian school” Platformed analyst Banafsheh Zand who questioned casualty figures and whether boys would be at a girls' school on Saturday (revealing ignorance of Iran's Saturday-Thursday school week). Framed school as having IRGC 'affiliation.' Zero coverage of any other school or hospital strike.
Amnesty International — “USA/Iran: Those responsible for deadly and unlawful US strike on school must be held accountable” Independent forensic analysis confirming US-manufactured Tomahawk missile at Minab. Called for accountability. The kind of verification work that corporate outlets cite when convenient and ignore when the conclusions are inconvenient.
Human Rights Watch — “US/Israel: Investigate Iran School Attack as a War Crime” Called for war crimes investigation into Minab. Documented satellite imagery showing civilian features visible for years. Corporate media cited HRW's findings but did not extend the investigation to other school strikes.