The human cost of the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran has risen sharply, with the Iranian Red Crescent Society revising its death toll upward to 787 as of Tuesday, March 3, from 555 reported on Monday, as strikes continue across a country where 131 cities have now been directly affected.
The revised figure of 787 deaths was cited by US state media citing the Iranian Red Crescent, which had put the number at 555 on Monday. The organisation has deployed more than 100,000 rescue and relief workers nationwide and said operations are continuing around the clock.
Among the most devastating individual incidents, Iranian officials confirmed that more than 168 schoolgirls were killed after US-Israeli strikes directly hit a girls’ elementary school in Minab in southeastern Fars Province, with Hossein Kermanpour, head of public relations at Iran’s Health Ministry, describing the attack as a direct hit on the school building.
On the Israeli side, at least 11 people have been killed in Iranian retaliatory strikes since the conflict began on February 28, including nine people who died after a ballistic missile struck a synagogue in the central city of Beit Shemesh, with rescue workers still searching through rubble for survivors.
Israel’s air force said it had dropped more than 1,200 munitions across 24 of Iran’s 31 provinces in a single day, with strikes reported in Tehran, Isfahan, Qom, Karaj, Kermanshah, and Tabriz, among other cities. Two hospitals near military installations were also hit, prompting the Iranian government to direct state media to amplify coverage of civilian casualties.
Iran’s interim leadership has been defiant. President Masoud Pezeshkian, speaking in a recorded video message following the second meeting of the temporary leadership council, said the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would bring the United States and Israel “nothing but humiliation,” and that Iran’s armed forces remained ready to “crush the bases of enemies.”
The conflict has drawn in Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which launched overnight rocket attacks against Israel. Lebanon’s prime minister, Nawaf Salam, condemned the strikes as illegal and demanded Hezbollah hand over its weapons, declaring that only the Lebanese state can decide questions of war and peace.
A significant friendly fire incident added to the conflict’s complexity, with the US military confirming that Kuwait’s air defences mistakenly shot down three American F-15E Strike Eagles during a combat mission. All six pilots ejected safely and are reported to be in stable condition.
US President Donald Trump stated the campaign has four primary objectives: halting Iran’s missile production, eliminating its naval capability, preventing nuclear weapons acquisition, and cutting off Tehran’s ability to arm and fund proxy forces across the region. He reiterated that the operation could last four to five weeks but said the US has the capability to sustain it considerably longer.
