TEHRAN – To commemorate the 40th day of the martyrdom of the Minab schoolchildren, a grand commemorative ceremony titled “In Memory of the Butterflies of Minab” was held in Tehran on Tuesday.
This special program was organized in collaboration with the Institute for Intellectual Development of Children and Youth (IIDCYA) Kanun and the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB).
In a moving tribute, hundreds of students in Tehran, wearing uniforms and holding Iranian flags, attended a ceremony in honor of their fallen comrades at Minab.
World-renowned filmmaker Majid Majidi addressed the crowd, thanking Iran’s military and praising the resilience of its people. “The Iranian people’s enthusiastic and voluntary participation in these rallies is as important as being on the front lines of the war against the American Zionist regime.”
Majidi expressed deep sadness over the Minab tragedy, adding: “I am confident that Iranian fighters will avenge the blood of these innocent children and people. The Zionist regime and the United States, which killed these children, will ultimately be held accountable for their crimes against humanity in an international forum.”
He emphasized that national unity is the key to victory, pointing out that “your 24-hour rally has bent the enemy’s back.”
At the ceremony, IRIB’s popular emcees Sarah Roostapour and Fatemeh Amini performed moving performances including chorus and puppetry. During the event, a new campaign titled “Seedlings of Hope” was launched, calling on children to plant fruit trees across Tehran in memory of those who were martyred during the Ramadan war.
The gathering also included a mobile theater and various art workshops, including painting and mural crafts, organized by Kanoon instructors to provide an outlet for creative expression for the children in attendance.
On February 28, Shajare Tayebeh Girls’ Primary School in Minab, Hormozgan province, became the scene of a devastating massacre as the United States and Israel launched an offensive against Iran.
Dozens of girls and boys aged 7 to 12 were starting classes when the school was targeted by a missile attack, which collapsed the building and trapped the children and teachers under rubble. Iranian authorities said the final death toll was 168 people and at least 95 injured, making it one of the deadliest days of the conflict.
As images of the tragedy circulate on social media, U.S. and Israeli authorities try to distance themselves from the massacre, but detailed forensic and digital investigations paint a very different picture.
Analysis by Al Jazeera’s Digital Investigative Unit, using more than a decade of satellite imagery and recent video clips, reveals that the school is a distinctly different civilian facility, isolated from the adjacent military facility for at least a decade. Additionally, eyewitness testimony and satellite-based analysis confirmed that the school had been triple-tapped by three separate deliberate attacks, leaving no doubt as to the nature of the attacks.
The international community is faced with mounting evidence of responsibility for this atrocity, with investigations by major global news outlets such as The New York Times, BBC Verify, CBC, and NPR all concluding that the United States was responsible for the attack.
These findings raise fundamental questions about the intelligence used to justify the bombings, as the pattern of attacks suggests they directly targeted civilian educational institutions. The Minab School tragedy is now solemn evidence of the invasion’s enormous human cost and is the focus of those calling for international accountability.
SAB/