Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei says the US-Israeli military campaign is not an “isolated act of cruelty”, but part of a “systematic and brutal pattern of illegal warfare against Iran”.

In a post on X, Baghaei has outlined that 600 educational institutions and schools were “deliberately targeted”, including the Shajareh Tayyebeh School in Minab, where over 170 people were killed.

“The term ‘war crime’ falls far short of adequately describing these atrocities,” Baghaei stresses. “Given the explicit rhetoric of hostility toward Iranians (as a nation) expressed by US/Israeli officials, these crimes amount to genocide.”