Iran’s Science Minister Hossein Simai Sarraf said on Saturday that more than 30 universities across the country had been hit by US-Israeli strikes since the conflict broke out. on February 28.
“To date, more than 30 universities have been directly targeted,” Sarraf told reporters during a visit to Shahid Beheshti University in northern Tehran, which was hit on Friday.
Iranian media reported that US and Israeli aircraft struck various strategic and civilian sites in Tehran on Friday afternoon.
The attacks represent a significant escalation in the ongoing hostilities between the US, Israel and Iran.
According to IRIBAerial bombardments hit a university campus in the Velenjak district in northern Tehran and Mehrabad International Airport in the west, damaging academic buildings and basic infrastructure.
Founded in 1960 and named after Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti, the institution serves as a critical research center for thousands of academics and students. These strikes follow previous operations against other civilian centers such as the Pasteur Institute Iranhistoric biomedical and public health facility.
The WHO was concerned about strikes in medical workplaces
The World Health Organization on Friday expressed grave concern over repeated attacks on Iran’s health infrastructure. Following the strike on the facility in Tehran, the WHO issued an urgent appeal to support the regional health system.
Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the Pasteur Institute had suffered “significant damage” and had been forced to halt health services, noting it was one of 20 confirmed targets.
“Several attacks on health have been reported in the Iranian capital of Tehran in recent days amid the escalating conflict in the Middle East,” Ghebreyesus wrote on X.
Iran’s Health Ministry spokesman Hossein Kermanpour shared images on social media showing the destruction and debris of the facility.
While the ministry condemned the airstrike in central Tehran as a “direct attack on international health security” and a violation of international law, ISNA the news agency later reported that basic services at the Pasteur Institute remained operational. Despite the damage, the agency said production of essential vaccines and sera would continue without interruption.
“Fortunately, none of the staff at the Pasteur Institute in Iran were injured in the recent attacks by the United States and the Zionist regime,” ISNA he wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
Tedros said the center “plays an important role in protecting and promoting population health, including in emergencies.”
Outside Iran, Tedros said the WHO is calling for urgent support for conflict-affected health systems in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, noting the “mass displacement” of some four million people caused by the war, which has left more than 3,000 dead and more than 30,000 injured.
