Hawking the Dreams

On February 28, 2026, the United States and Israel launched coordinated military strikes against Iran. Just two hours later, three Tomahawk missiles struck Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School in Minab, killing 156 people, including 120 children.

Operation Epic Fury is the name given by the United States and Israel to their coordinated military assault on Iran. The operation began on February 28, 2026, in the midst of diplomatic negotiations between the United States and Iran. It opened with the bombing of the office of Ali Khamenei, followed by joint U.S.-Israeli airstrikes on cities across Iran.

Yet despite President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu’s efforts to portray the operation as legitimate, this assault was neither “epic” nor carried out for the benefit of the Iranian people.

Two hours after the war began, three Tomahawk missiles struck Shajareh- Tayyebeh Elementary School in the southern Iranian city of Minab, at intervals of several minutes.

According to The Guardian, although the school was adjacent to a cluster of military buildings, including a medical clinic and pharmacy, there was no indication that the school is in any sense a military-use building. Moreover, the colorful murals on its walls are visible in some satellite imagery. Nor were its classes exclusively reserved for children of military families. The school also enrolled many children from the local community, particularly those who could not afford private school fees.

The bombing killed 156 people, including 120 students between the ages of six and thirteen—47 girls and 73 boys—as well as 26 teachers, seven family members of students, a school bus driver, a clinic technician, and a six-month-old fetus.

The scale of the devastation was so immense. Search and recovery operations continued for days as rescuers searched through the rubble for the victims. For many families, almost nothing remained of their loved ones—sometimes only a fragment of a hand or a piece of scalp. Some victims could be identified only through DNA testing.

Months earlier, in June 2025, many civilians had also been killed in Israeli airstrikes on Iran. Yet for many Iranians, the bombing of the Minab school remains the most devastating and heartbreaking event of the two wars, lasting 12 and 39 days respectively. The bombing has since become both a national trauma, as well as a symbol for those opposing war around the world.

Minab has not yet returned to ordinary life.

Months after the attack, the city remains in mourning. Minab is a small city where people know one another, or are connected through family ties. The loss therefore extends far beyond the immediate families of the victims. Grief has become a shared experience, one that touches the entire community as though the city itself had lost members of its own family.

For the parents who remain, their children now survive in memories and in the objects they left behind. A school uniform, a personal belonging, a photograph, or an everyday object can suddenly become a reminder of a child’s personality, dreams, and hopes. Those dreams ended in an instant, buried beneath the rubble when the missiles struck.

Every day, families continue to visit their children’s graves in the cemetery. They mourn together, share stories and memories of the children they lost, and try to find comfort in one another.

 The war is over, and people across Iran are attempting to rebuild their lives and repair the damage left behind. But in Minab, time seems to have stopped.

For the people of the city, and for the families of those who were killed, it is still 11:20 a.m. on February 28, 2026.