Parents had already dropped off their kids at school in Iran on Saturday morning, the start of the workweek there, when an explosion hit and black smoke rose from a building with pastel-painted walls.
More than 100 children were killed as the U.S. and Israel carried out strikes against Iran, according to Iranian officials. The strike, one of two over the weekend, hit the girls’ elementary school in a province of southern Iran.
“They were girls who went to school to learn, with hopes and dreams for their future,” Pakistani-born activist Malala Yousafzai wrote on X. “Today, their lives were brutally cut short.”
She added that she was “heartbroken and appalled” by the U.S.-Israeli attacks.
The number of casualties has not been verified as the death toll keeps rising, but Shiva Amelirad, a representative for a network of teachers’ unions in Iran, told TIME that multiple children from the same family, as well as some teachers, were killed in the strike.
Amelirad added that school officials had decided to close the building when the strikes began, but the window between the announcement and the time of the explosion was too short to avoid the heartbreaking deaths. “Many families had not yet arrived to pick up their children,” she said.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian blamed the U.S. and Israel, which said it was “not aware” of any military operations in the area, for the deaths.
“This barbaric act is another black page in the record of countless crimes committed by the aggressors against this land that will never be erased from the historical memory of our nation,” he said, according to ABC News.
Captain Tim Hawkins, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said the bombing would be investigated but insisted “we have never – and will never – target civilians.”
“We take these reports seriously and are looking into them,” Hawkins said in a statement. “The protection of civilians is of utmost importance, and we will continue to take all precautions available to minimize the risk of unintended harm.”
Yousafzai blasted the violence and urged officials to better protect civilians amid the escalating conflict.
“The killing of civilians, especially children, is unconscionable,” she wrote. “Every child deserves to live and learn in peace.”
![Malala Yousafzai's nonprofit, the Malala Fund, has been raising money for Afghan girls' education since 2017. [Credit: World Economic Forum // Flickr]](jpg/malala-yousafzai-afghan-women-150x150.jpg)