Hyderabad, March 5 -- They had arrived for morning classes.

When the strike hit the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls' elementary school in Minab, a city in southern Iran, on February 28, the girls were at their desks. By the time rescuers reached the site, backpacks lay buried under rubble, torn textbooks were scattered across the ground, and what had been classrooms was reduced to debris - images that illustrate a grim reality of modern warfare where the first victims of war are often children.

At least 165 students and staff were killed. Ninety-six others were injured. Most of those who died were girls aged between seven and 12.

A school bag discovered under the rubble at the site of a destroyed building. Photo: Screengrab/X

A schoolbook fou...