Frank Okon

The escalating war in the Middle East is taking a growing toll on civilians, UN experts warned on Monday during a briefing to the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

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Independent investigators highlighted rising violence following Israeli and U.S. strikes on Iran and retaliatory attacks by Tehran and allied groups, including Iranian drone and missile attacks on Gulf states and Israeli strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.

“On 28 February, the U.S. and Israel launched a devastating aerial campaign against Iran, ostensibly targeting military sites and nuclear facilities,” said Sara Hossein, chair of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran.

“In almost three weeks, these strikes have caused mounting civilian casualties, including children.”

Hossein described ordinary Iranians as caught “between a large-scale military campaign by two countries, the U.S. and Israel, and ongoing repression by their own government.” Residential areas, oil depots, and a desalination plant have been damaged or destroyed, she said. She cited an airstrike in Minab, southern Iran, on the first day of the conflict that killed more than 168 people, mostly girls as young as seven, and expressed concern over public statements by U.S. officials suggesting long-established rules of engagement may not apply.

The Council’s Special Rapporteur on Iran, Mai Sato, added that at least 1,000 civilians have reportedly died, with hospitals and World Heritage sites destroyed.

Strikes on oil infrastructure have caused toxic environmental effects in a country already facing severe water shortages.

Sato said the conflict has displaced three million people inside Iran and noted the lack of functional air raid sirens and bomb shelters in many urban areas, raising serious concerns about civilian protection.

Iranian Ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Ali Bahreini, confirmed more than 1,300 deaths and over 7,000 injuries, including a six-month-old baby, and urged the international community not to remain silent.

The conflict, now in its third week, has spread across nearly a dozen countries in the already fragile Middle East. Speaking on behalf of the Gulf Cooperation Council and Jordan, Bahraini Ambassador Abdullah Abdulatif Abdullah condemned Iranian attacks on civilian targets and critical infrastructure.

He welcomed UN Security Council Resolution 2817, passed on 11 March with support from 136 member states, and rejected claims by the Fact-Finding Mission and Special Rapporteur, calling Iran’s strikes illegal under international law.

The Philippines, representing the ASEAN regional grouping, also expressed concern about the escalating violence, warning that the conflict has already claimed many innocent lives, including children, and stressed that such attacks should not be normalized.