When Knowledge Becomes a Target
As researchers, we share a foundational belief: that the pursuit of knowledge serves humanity. Yet recent verified reports demand our urgent ethical reflection. On February 28, 2026, a strike hit the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls' elementary school in Minab, Iran. According to UNICEF, 168 children mostly aged 7–12`were killed. Human Rights Watch notes that preliminary U.S. military assessments indicate U.S. forces were "likely behind the attack," raising critical questions about compliance with international humanitarian law obligations to distinguish civilian objects and take feasible precautions.
This is not a political statement. It is a humanitarian emergency that intersects directly with our identity as scientists. When schools, universities, and laboratories are damaged or destroyed, we lose more than buildings: we lose the infrastructure of human progress. The evidence paints a comprehensive picture of systematic destruction spanning from Gaza to Iran. Under the guise of "precision strikes" and "self-defence," the United States and Israel have systematically dismantled a region's intellectual future, targeting schools, universities, research centres, and individual scientists as strategic objectives.
The Minab School Strike: Anatomy of a Massacre
On the morning of February 28, 2026, more than 250 students at the Shajareh Tayyebeh (The Good Tree) primary school for girls in Minab, southern Iran, had just settled into their classrooms. The first day of the Iranian school week had barely begun when the school was struck three times in succession.
The Strike and the "Double-Tap" Tactic
These children were killed in a "double-tap" strike, where a second missile is deliberately timed to kill first responders and survivors rushing to the scene. Human Rights Watch verified and analyzed 14 videos and photographs recorded immediately after the strike, as well as satellite imagery, confirming that the attack was carried out by highly accurate, guided munitions rather than errant weapons whose guidance or propulsion systems had failed.
The Aftermath
The recovery operation took more than 24 hours, as emergency teams worked to clear the wreckage and retrieve bodies. Many of the 168 bodies retrieved from the rubble were so badly mutilated by the blast that parents were forced to identify their children in morgues by their clothing or the shape of their eyes. Human Rights Watch stated that the devastating and unlawful attack on the primary school in Minab, that reportedly killed scores of civilians, including many children, "should be investigated as a war crime by the US."
Denial and Deflection
Human Rights Watch found that the school is walled off and has a separate entrance to the street from the rest of the adjacent IRGC compound, and that the pattern of strikes indicated the use of precision-guided munitions. Amnesty International confirmed that no evidence has emerged suggesting the school was being used for military purposes. Yet, neither the US nor Israel has taken responsibility. The standard script "strike, denial, condemnation, silence" played out once more.
The Deliberate Erasure of Iran's Scientific Capacity
The assault on Iran extends far beyond a single school, forming part of a methodical campaign to dismantle the nation's scientific and intellectual infrastructure.
Documented Impact on Iran's Scientific Infrastructure
Credible, independent reporting confirms that academic and research institutions in Iran have been significantly affected by recent hostilities. According to Iran's science minister and the Iranian Red Crescent Society, at least 30 universities have been damaged or destroyed since the war began on 28 February 2026. More than 1,400 international scholars signed an open letter to UN officials condemning "the bombing of civilian academic, health and research infrastructure."
Key Institutions Destroyed
The targeted institutions include Iran's most prestigious centres of learning:
- Sharif University of Technology– Iran's equivalent of MIT; its data centre, mosque, and laboratories were hit
- Pasteur Institute of Iran– A century-old medical research centre; the WHO confirmed it was "rendered unable to continue delivering health services"
- Isfahan University of Technology– Attacked twice in late March
- Shahid Beheshti University– Its Laser and Plasma Research Institute was reduced to rubble
- Shahid Meysami Research Center– Attacked twice, in June 2025 and March 2026, with laboratories completely destroyed
- Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST)and University of Tehran – Among the many damaged
Local monitoring groups estimate that approximately 600 educational facilities nationwide have been damaged or destroyed. These losses are not abstract. They represent decades of scholarly work, irreplaceable data, and the disruption of research addressing climate resilience, disease prevention, and sustainable development challenges that affect us all.
The Targeted Assassination of Scientists
The destruction of buildings is matched by the killing of the people within them. Science magazine and other outlets have documented concerns about the targeting of dual-use research facilities, emphasizing the ethical complexity when civilian scientific infrastructure intersects with defense-related research. This campaign of targeted assassinations has been a strategic goal for successive Israeli governments for decades.
The Gaza Precedent: A Template of Destruction
The attacks on Iran did not emerge from a vacuum. They are the direct continuation of a doctrine of obliteration that was perfected in Gaza.
The Scale of Educational Destruction
In Gaza, the assault on education has been near-total: 95% of school buildings have been damaged or destroyed. Since October 2023, over 17,237 school students and 1,271 university students have been killed, alongside 967 educational staff. All 19 of Gaza's universities suffered severe damage, with 80% of university buildings destroyed, 103 academics killed, and 90,000 students unable to pursue their studies.
The "Obliteration Doctrine"
Analysts and scholars have identified an "obliteration doctrine" a military strategy prioritising the total destruction of an enemy's infrastructure and population over traditional military objectives. This doctrine, developed by Israel and tested in Gaza, explicitly relies on scorched-earth policy, collective punishment, and civilian victimisation all prohibited under the Geneva Conventions. The US has adopted core elements of this doctrine in Iran.
The Architecture of Hypocrisy
The governments orchestrating these attacks are the same ones that invoke "human rights," "international law," and "equality" to justify their actions.
"Precision Strikes" and "Minimising Civilian Harm"
The US military stated it was "reviewing reports of civilian harm," while Israel's military claimed it was "not aware" of operations in the area of the Minab school. A White House spokesperson and an Israeli military representative separately told the press that "they do not target civilian infrastructure" but "did not explain why these and other named institutions were bombed."
The Double Standard in International Law
The US stood by Israel's right to defend itself, vetoing a UN Security Council call for a commission of inquiry into its actions. Yet when Iran retaliates, it is condemned as "terrorism." This is not the impartial application of law; it is the raw exercise of power dressed in legal language.
The "Administrative Outcome" of Death
The philosopher Achille Mbembe's concept of "necropolitics" describes a system where death and diminishment become "administrative outcomes and not deliberate acts." What is needed is "a targeting logic that defines education infrastructure as militarily relevant."
The Scientist's Ethical Responsibility
Beyond Neutrality
The evidence compels an uncomfortable truth: scientists are not passive victims of this system but its essential pillars. The scientific community has long grappled with questions of moral responsibility. As Springer-published scholarship on research ethics notes, scientists cannot claim neutrality when their work is applied to enhance lethal capacity. Historical precedents from the atomic age to chemical weapons research remind us that technical expertise carries ethical weight.
International humanitarian law is clear: civilian objects, including schools and universities, are protected unless they become definite military objectives and even then, attackers must take "all feasible precautions" to avoid civilian harm. The ICRC states that a civilian object must not be attacked unless it is used in a way that renders it a military objective. Human Rights Watch emphasizes that framing an incident as a "mistake" does not automatically absolve responsibility; reckless disregard for civilian safety may meet the legal threshold for war crimes.
For researchers today, this legal framework translates into three ethical imperatives:
- Critical Evaluation of Research Applications: Before accepting funding or partnerships, ask: Could this work be used to enhance surveillance, targeting, or lethal systems? If yes, what safeguards exist?
- Solidarity with Threatened Colleagues: Support networks like Scholars at Risk, which documents attacks on higher education and advocates for academic freedom globally.
- Transparency and Accountability: Advocate for institutional policies that require ethical review of dual-use research and public disclosure of military-linked funding.
The Scientist as Mercenary
The AI systems used for targeting in Gaza reportedly including advanced technologies were developed by data scientists and software engineers. The Israeli airstrike that killed chemical engineer Soleiman Soleimani, a graduate of IUST described as a "martyr" by his university, was made possible by generations of scientific research into precision guidance, explosives chemistry, and targeting algorithms.
As researchers in Iran report, they feel "unsafe going to university" and are "unable to concentrate on work" due to the "heartbreaking" destruction around them. One neuroscientist warns: "If attacks on universities become a normal thing, then they can happen in any future stupid war. And this idea is much more destructive than attacking a single building."
A Call to Action: Concrete Steps for the Global Research Community
We cannot undo the loss in Minab. But we can act to prevent further erosion of science's humanitarian mission. I propose the following commitments for individual researchers and institutions:
- Adopt an Ethical Pledge: "I will not knowingly contribute research designed to enhance the capacity to harm civilians or destroy educational infrastructure."
- Strengthen Institutional Safeguards: Universities and research centers should establish independent ethics committees to review projects with potential military applications, with representation from early-career researchers and civil society.
- Amplify Verified Documentation: Share credible reports from UNICEF, Human Rights Watch, and academic monitoring groups. Evidence-based advocacy is more powerful than rhetoric.
- Support Open Science for Peace: Prioritize research collaborations that address shared human challenges pandemic preparedness, water security, renewable energy across geopolitical divides.
- Demand Accountability: Urge professional societies (e.g., AAAS, IEEE, IAP) to issue statements condemning attacks on educational institutions and to lobby for stronger protections under international law.
A Personal Appeal to Every Scientist and Student
If you are working or considering working for any company or government to develop warfare that kills innocent people, I ask you to stop. You may believe you are merely doing a job, solving technical problems, or serving your nation. But the targets of your work are not abstractions. They are the 168 girls of Minab, the toddlers of Ranginkaman Kindergarten, the students and professors buried in the rubble of universities.
One day, you will see the results of what you have built. If not in this life, then in the quiet of your conscience, when the faces of the dead visit you in your sleep. History will remember what you chose to do with your knowledge. You will not be celebrated as a patriot or a genius. You will be remembered as someone who placed their skills at the service of those who butcher children a servant of criminals, stripped of moral autonomy, a figure of shame in the eyes of future generations.
You are more than a tool. Refuse to be a weapon. Refuse to be a slave to power. Your legacy is being written now, in the choices you make every day. Choose the side of life.
Science Belongs to Humanity
The destruction of the Shajareh Tayyebeh school, the erasure of Gaza's universities, the targeted killing of Iranian scientists, and the damage to university laboratories across Iran these are not isolated incidents. They are the coordinated, documented, and unrepentant application of an obliteration doctrine that treats education, knowledge, and human life as acceptable collateral in a war for supremacy. They represent a pattern that threatens the very foundation of knowledge-based progress.
We, as scientists, have a choice. We can allow our expertise to be instrumentalized by any power that seeks dominance through fear. Or we can reaffirm that science belongs to humanity not to governments, not to militaries, not to ideologies.
The bodies of 168 schoolgirls, the rubble of 30 universities, and the silence of the global scientific community all testify to the death of scientific neutrality. The science of killing children is not a metaphor; it is a field of research, funded, developed, and deployed by scientists who chose not to refuse.
I invite my colleagues worldwide to join a simple but profound commitment: No research for destruction. No silence in the face of attacks on knowledge.
Our work is too important to be weaponized. Our shared future depends on choosing wisdom over warfare, compassion over conquest, and truth over power.
The choice remains. Refuse the machinery of death. Refuse to let your work be used to kill children. Refuse the silence.
My city and neighbourhood have been hit by these terrorist regimes for 40 days. Some of my friends and scientific mentors have been killed by US and Israeli terrorist attacks, along with many of my fellow citizens. Maybe the next one will be me. Or one day, it will be you. Your silence is compliance with them.
It is said that the world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.
~ Albert Einstein
Be sure that the future will judge you. It will ask what you did when you saw the murder of innocent people. You will not be able to say, "I didn't know."