The reopening of schools comes seven months after the strike, which killed 168 people, including students and teachers, during the opening phase of the US-Israeli war against Iran.

A United Nations fact-finding mission said last week that there were “reasonable grounds to believe” the United States committed war crimes in the Minab strike, finding that the attack was an indiscriminate assault that failed to meet international-law requirements for protecting civilians.

The attack has remained a central issue in Iran’s public and diplomatic response to the war of aggression by the US and the Israeli regime, with Tehran condemning Washington for responsibility for the deaths and demanding accountability.

Meanwhile, Iran has turned the reopening of schools into a national commemoration of the Minab victims.

President Masoud Pezeshkian attended a school ceremony in Tehran and paid tribute to the students and teachers who will not return to their classrooms this year.

The ceremony came as Iranian officials emphasized that the new academic year would continue despite the deaths and destruction caused during the war.

For families in Minab, however, the return to school carries a painful absence.

The Shajareh Tayyebeh school was struck on Feb. 28 as US and Israeli attacks began across Iran.

Independent investigations have subsequently examined evidence indicating that US forces were responsible for the criminal strike.

The Washington Post reported that video evidence reviewed by weapons experts showed what appeared to be a US Tomahawk missile striking near the school and an adjacent Iranian military facility.

Amnesty International also examined footage and missile remnants associated with the attack and said the available evidence was consistent with the use of a US-made Tomahawk missile.

In a separate investigation published this month, Bloomberg reported that a Pentagon review identified flawed intelligence, outdated imagery and excessive reliance on artificial-intelligence systems as contributing factors in the strike.

The report said Pentagon personnel knew within hours that the attack had struck the school and that the internal investigation had identified a series of failures in the US targeting process.

The Pentagon has not publicly released the full findings of its investigation.

The UN fact-finding mission separately concluded that the United States had failed to take all feasible measures to verify that the school was a legitimate military target before launching the attack, saying the failure went beyond negligence.

The mission also examined a separate US strike in Lamerd and concluded that there were reasonable grounds to believe the attack constituted an indiscriminate attack prohibited under international humanitarian law.

Iranian officials, however, have stressed that the Minab attack was a defining example of the civilian cost of the war and the failure of international institutions to hold powerful states accountable.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, who arrived in New York for the 81st United Nations General Assembly, said Iran would use the international platform to present the suffering of the Iranian people and the victims of the US war.

“It is natural that this tribune will be a place where the people of Iran and the martyrs of the children of the Minab School... will be able to express themselves,” Araqchi said.

He has also said that restoring confidence in the United Nations would be a major issue for Iran, arguing that the organization’s credibility has been weakened by selective enforcement of international law.

The Minab victims are therefore expected to remain at the center of Iran’s diplomatic messaging as the country begins a new academic year and its leadership raises the issue at the United Nations.

For the students returning to classrooms across Iran, the school year begins with the familiar sound of school bells and the gathering of classmates.

For the families of Minab, it also begins with empty desks and the memory of children who will not walk through the school gates again.