At least 787 persons have been killed in Iran since the United States and Israel began attacking the country on Saturday, the Iranian Red Crescent said on Tuesday.

The humanitarian group had put the toll at 555 on Monday.

In the past four days, over 1,000 strikes hit 153 cities and more than 500 locations in Iran, AFP quoted the Iranian Red Crescent as saying,

The conflict in West Asia began on Saturday after Israel and the US launched strikes on Iran in a joint military operation. Tehran retaliated by striking Israel and US military bases in the region and targeted major cities in other Gulf countries. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in the joint military operation, further escalating the already volatile situation.

A girls’ school in Minab town was hit on Saturday, with Iranian media outlets saying that the attack killed over 160 persons. On Monday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US forces “would not deliberately target a school” and denied targeting civilian infrastructure, stating that Iran had been striking hotels and airports in the Gulf countries.

On Tuesday, Iran held a mass funeral ceremony for those killed in Minab, Al Jazeera reported.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization said that “the killing of pupils in a place dedicated to learning constitutes a grave violation of the protection afforded to schools under international humanitarian law”.

The United States military on Tuesday said that its forces had destroyed Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps command and control facilities, its air defence capabilities, missile and drone launch sites and military airfields. It provided no evidence to support the claims.

The Israel Defense Forces also said that it was conducting simultaneous strikes against military targets in Tehran and in Beirut.

Tehran and its allies also retaliated, striking Israel and several sites in Gulf states.

Six US soldiers have been killed in an Iranian missile strike on an American military facility in Kuwait on Sunday, the BBC reported. The US Central Command initially reported three deaths, but the toll was revised on Monday after one service member died of injuries and two more bodies were recovered from the rubble.

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said a “powerful weapon” struck a fortified tactical operations centre after a missile evaded air defences during Iran’s retaliation.

More than 13,000 American troops are stationed in Kuwait.

Amid the fresh conflict, the Indian embassy in Tehran on Tuesday issued another advisory for Indian students and other nationals who remain in Iran.

It urged those in the country to stay where they are, remain indoors as far as possible, avoid windows, exercise due caution at all times, avoid areas of protests and demonstrations, and remain in regular contact with the embassy.

‘Israel prepared for weeks-long campaign against Iran’

The Israeli military has prepared for a campaign against Iran that could last several weeks but is unlikely to see the deployment of ground forces, Reuters quoted a military official as saying on Tuesday.

Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said that the country has “prepared a general scope of weeks” and added that the duration of the military offensive could change depending on developments, the news agency reported.

When asked if ​Israel could deploy ground forces to Iran, Shoshani said: “I don’t think that's something very likely at the moment for Israeli forces. There’s not a practical idea.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that the conflict with Iran could take “some time” but would not last years.

UN watchdog confirms damage to Natanz nuclear site in Iran

The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog confirmed on Tuesday that entrance buildings at Iran’s underground uranium-enrichment plant at Natanz were damaged in the Israel-US strikes.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said in a social media post that there were “no radiological consequences expected” and that no additional damage was detected inside the underground Fuel Enrichment Plant itself. The facility had been severely damaged during the June conflict.

Natanz is one of three known uranium-enrichment sites in Iran.

On Monday, Iran’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency had said that the Natanz facility was struck during the attacks on Sunday.

The conflict

On Saturday, Israel and the US launched a joint operation to “degrade the capabilities” of the Iranian government. Iran retaliated to the attacks and said that the US-Israeli operation had begun while the nuclear negotiations were on.

The attacks came amid tensions between the three countries over Tehran’s nuclear programme. Israel has been claiming that Iran is “closer than ever” to obtaining a nuclear weapon, which could alter the regional security balance. Washington acts as a guarantor of Israel’s security.

Iran has long maintained that its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes.

However, amid fears of a potential attack, with a heavy US military deployment off its coast in recent months, Tehran had been forced to reopen negotiations with Washington about its nuclear programme.

After Khamenei’s death on Sunday, Tehran vowed revenge and fired missiles at Israel and other countries across the Gulf. His killing further escalated an already volatile situation in the region.

Also read: