The OHCHR called on the forces responsible for the attack to conduct the investigation, emphasising that the burden of accountability lies with the perpetrators.
The United Nations on Tuesday called for a thorough investigation into the attack on a girls’ school in the southern Iranian city of Minab and requested the disclosure of all relevant information.
Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), pressed for a prompt, impartial and comprehensive inquiry into the circumstances of the strike.
The attack, which occurred on Saturday following joint U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran, marked the deadliest single incident in the conflict to date.
Around 165 schoolgirls and staff were killed and nearly 100 others were wounded in the strike.
Shamdasani condemned the U.S.-Israeli strike on the Minab girls’ school as “absolutely devastating.”
“I mean, children, little girls, in the middle of the school day, at the beginning of the school day, being killed in this manner, backpacks with, you know, blood stains on them. This is absolutely horrific. And I think if there’s any image that captures the essence of the destruction, despair, and senselessness and cruelty of this conflict, those are the images,” she said.
She warned that any attack against civilians or civilian objects constitutes a grave violation of international humanitarian law and could amount to a war crime.
The OHCHR called on the forces responsible for the attack to conduct the investigation, stressing that the burden of accountability lies with the perpetrators.
Drone footage from Minab on Tuesday showed excavators digging rows of fresh graves in preparation for the burial of victims of the U.S.-Israeli strike on the girls’ school.
Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported that a mass funeral procession was held late Tuesday for the 165 schoolgirls and staff killed in the strike.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Monday accused the U.S. and Israel of carrying out the attack.
“These are graves being dug for more than 160 innocent young girls who were killed in the U.S.-Israeli bombing of a primary school. Their bodies were torn to shreds,” Araghchi wrote on X, alongside an image of newly dug graves.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that U.S. forces would not deliberately target a school.
“The Department of War would be investigating that if that was our strike, and I would refer your question to them,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio added on Monday, dodging a question from a reporter.
