By Our Correspondent

TEHRAN - The rubble of Minab Girls' Primary School in southern Iran has become a mass grave. Beneath the twisted metal and shattered concrete lie the bodies of 168 schoolgirls, killed Saturday when US-Israeli missiles reduced their classroom to dust.

As rescue workers almost completed their work pulling small bodies from the wreckage, the death toll from six days of strikes has climbed to over 1,000 Iranians -- among them children, women, the elderly, and civilians going about their ordinary lives.

But it is the faces of the young victims that haunt Tehran. Funeral processions snaked through the streets of Minab on Tuesday, thousands of mourners following rows of small coffins draped in white. A father carried his daughter's body, her schoolbooks clutched beneath his arm. A mother collapsed as they lowered three siblings into adjacent graves.

Fatima Shakira stood amidst the fresh graves at Minab's cemetery, her voice breaking as she spoke to reporters. She had lost two daughters in the strike.

"Who will give me justice now?" she asked, tears streaming down her face. "The world leaders are silent. Some are even supporting Trump, supporting the killing of my daughters. I just ask these leaders: if Trump killed your daughter, would you remain silent? Would you not speak?"

Her hands trembled as she raised them toward the sky. "Look at my hands. They are red with the blood of my daughters. Trump's hands are red. Netanyahu's hands are red. One hundred sixty others were brutally killed; their blood is on these leaders."

Nearby, a man who gave his name only as Reza stood staring at a small grave marker. His daughter was seven years old.

"She was seven. Seven years old. Trump buried her under the rubble," he said, his voice barely a whisper.

"There is no humanity in this world. These leaders -- they all fear Trump. They are silent over this barbarism. What was the sin of my daughter? What was the sin of any of these children?"

- 'Deeply shameful and hypocritical response from the global community.' 

While grieving parents buried their children in Iran, just miles away at the United Nations headquarters in New York, a surreal scene unfolded. US First Lady Melania Trump presided over a Security Council meeting on Monday on protecting children in armed conflict, as American and Israeli missiles continued to rain down on Iranian schools and hospitals.

Iran's UN Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani called it "deeply shameful and hypocritical" for the United States to convene a meeting on protecting children while launching airstrikes on Iranian cities.

Speaking to reporters before the session, he accused the US and Israel of "deliberately targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure," resulting in the deaths of 165 schoolgirls in Hormozgan province.

"These acts constitute aggression. They constitute war crimes. They constitute crimes against humanity," Iravani declared.

UNESCO issued a rare condemnation Tuesday, stating that the bombing of a primary school constitutes a "grave violation of international humanitarian law".

The agency emphasized that pupils in a place dedicated to learning are protected under international law, and "attacks against educational institutions endanger students and teachers and undermine the right to education".

Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai, who survived a Taliban assassination attempt for advocating girls' education, said she was "heartbroken and appalled" by the bombing.

"The killing of civilians, especially children, is unconscionable, and I condemn it unequivocally," she posted on social media.

- Where Is the Condemnation?

Yet official condemnation from Western capitals has been notably absent.

In the European Parliament, the Left group sharply criticized European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for refusing to condemn the US-Israeli attacks.

Belgian MEP Marc Botenga denounced what he called a "policy of double standards": condemning Russian violations in Ukraine while excusing violations by the US and Israel.

"It is shocking that Commission President Von der Leyen and HRVP Kaja Kallas refuse to condemn it," Botenga said.

"Europe's failure to stand up for the basic principles of international law legitimises a world order where power and violence rule supreme, endangering lives throughout the world".

In London, Prime Minister Keir Starmer defended his decision not to join offensive strikes on Iran, telling a silent parliament he did not want to repeat "the mistakes of Iraq". But he stopped short of condemning the attacks, instead allowing "limited" use of British bases by US forces for what he termed "defensive" operations.

Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles reiterated his government's support for the US-Israeli strikes, despite confirming that Iranian drones had struck an Australian air base near Dubai.

- Hospitals, mosques, heritage sites targeted

The school in Minab was not the only civilian site struck. On Monday, Israel launched fresh strikes hitting an elementary school in Tehran, according to Iranian state media. A major hospital in the capital was also targeted, with patients killed in their beds as missiles struck the facility.

The Golestan Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Tehran, sustained damage. Reports also emerged of mosques being hit in residential neighborhoods.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi shared a photo on X showing rows of freshly dug graves. "Their bodies were torn to shreds," he wrote. "This is how 'rescue' promised by Mr. Trump looks in reality. From Gaza to Minab, innocents murdered in cold blood".

As grieving parents in Tehran asked where the world's outrage was, attention turned to the United Nations Security Council. Iravani demanded action: "The United Nations cannot remain silent. Accountability is not optional. The Security Council must act firmly, clearly, and without ambiguity" .

But with the United States holding veto power and currently occupying the Security Council presidency for March, meaningful action is virtually impossible. Monday's emergency session produced no resolution, no condemnation, no accountability.

UN political chief Rosemary DiCarlo acknowledged the reports of schoolgirls killed but stopped short of assigning blame, noting instead that schools across the region had closed due to ongoing military operations.

- 'These leaders fear Trump'

Back in Minab, as the sun set over fresh graves, Fatima Shakira's question hung in the air unanswered.

"Who will give me justice now?"

Her daughters, names unrecorded by international media, faces unseen by world leaders -- lie beneath Iranian soil.

Their killer, she believes, walks free. Their blood, she insists, stains not just Trump and Netanyahu, but every leader who watches in silence.

"These leaders fear Trump," she said. "They fear power. But my daughters, they had no power. They had no weapons. They had only their schoolbooks and their dreams. What was their sin?"

As the conflict enters its sixth day, with Iran vowing retaliation and the US promising more strikes, the civilian death toll continues to climb. The Iranian Red Crescent now reports over 1,000. Among them: 168 schoolgirls who will never grow up, never graduate, never ask their own questions of a world that failed them.

- What international law says

Under the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols, targeting civilian infrastructure such as schools and hospitals constitutes a grave breach of international humanitarian law .

Article 18 of the Fourth Geneva Convention explicitly states: "Civilian hospitals organized to give care to the wounded and sick, the infirm and maternity cases, may in no circumstances be the object of attack".

Schools enjoy similar protection under customary international law, unless used for military purposes, and no evidence has emerged that the Minab school was anything other than a place of learning.