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Children and Named Victims in Iran

Evidence rating: STRONG for the counts of children from Iran's judiciary and independent rights groups. Individual names come from advocacy lists that label themselves "Reported," and are given as such.

Numbers in the hundreds are hard to feel. This page is about the people inside them, especially the children.

How many children​

  • Iran's judiciary, June 30, 2025: 935 dead, including 38 children and 132 women (Times of Israel).
  • The Iranian rights group LDDHI, a member of the International Federation for Human Rights, counted at least 20 children killed by June 17 (as cited on the Civilians of Iran incident page).
  • On day four, Al Jazeera reported 220 dead in Iran, including 70 women and children (research captures).
  • The Guardian reported injured children as young as four (research captures), and quoted a Tehran doctor: "I've seen toddlers, teenagers, adults and the elderly alike. Profusely bleeding mothers were rushing in with their children injured by shrapnel" (The Guardian, June 16, 2025).

Some of the names​

The Civilians of Iran site lists named victims, among them Rayan Ghasemian, age 0, and Mohammad Ali Bahmanabadi, age 1, both killed in Tehran on June 13, the first morning of Israel's attack. The site is an advocacy project and labels its list "Reported," not verified (Civilians of Iran). A video circulated in May 2026 reading out the names of 53 civilians (@RebelGoy88). A funeral in Tehran on June 28 buried more than 60 people (video).

Why families died with the targets​

Many of Israel's opening strikes on June 13 hit apartment buildings where commanders and nuclear scientists lived. A senior Israeli official described it: "We eliminated 20 people there... we caught them in their homes" (as posted by @JewishWarrior13; the official is not named). When a target is killed at home at 3 a.m., the people asleep around him die too. A strike on an apartment block in Tehran's Gisha district was among those documented (research captures).

Iranian writers documented what that meant for children's rights and for civilians with no shelters (Abouzar Zaman, Peace Mark; Sina Yousefi, Peace Mark). Tehran has few public bomb shelters; residents sheltered in underground parking garages (Geneva Council).

One Iranian mother's words​

A woman in Iran, speaking to NPR: "That Twelve-Day war, I myself was afraid. My mother was afraid" (NPR).

Why this is on an American site​

America joined this war on June 22. Its bombs hit nuclear sites, not homes, and no civilian deaths from the American strike were reported. But the United States entered a war whose first morning killed infants in their beds, and whose purpose, in the Israeli defense minister's leaked words, included striking "civilian national infrastructure that destabilizes the leader." Americans were never asked whether they wanted to be part of that.

Sources​

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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