Last updated:
Mahsa / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images
On 3 March 2026, Amnesty International published a report focusing on the rapid deterioration of the security situation across the Middle East following joint United States-Israel attacks on Iran and the subsequent wave of Iranian retaliatory strikes across the region. In its article, Amnesty International presented the crisis primarily through the lens of civilian protection and international humanitarian law, arguing that the widening conflict is already producing severe humanitarian consequences and raising the risk of further unlawful attacks.
According to Amnesty International, the conflict has expanded beyond a single front and now involves more than 10 countries, illustrating how quickly military action has spread across the region. The organization described a pattern of escalating hostilities that includes direct attacks, retaliatory strikes, displacement, damage to civilian infrastructure, and growing fears of a prolonged international confrontation. It framed the situation as not only a military crisis, but also a major legal and humanitarian emergency in which civilians are increasingly exposed to harm.
A central part of the report concerns the human cost inside Iran. Amnesty International cited the Iranian Red Crescent Society, which said that 787 people had been killed in Iran since the attacks began. The article also highlighted a particularly serious incident in Minab, Hormozgan province, where Iranian authorities said that 165 people, including around 150 schoolchildren, were killed when a school was struck on 28 February 2026. Amnesty International noted that the United Nations described the bombing of the school as a grave violation of humanitarian law, while UNESCO warned that attacks on educational institutions threaten the legal protections afforded to students and teachers during armed conflict. The organization added that the UN Human Rights Office called for a prompt and impartial investigation into the incident.
The report further stated that Amnesty International had verified six videos from the aftermath of the strike on the school. According to the organization, the footage showed smoke rising from a damaged building as rescuers searched through rubble. Amnesty International said the videos appeared to document the school compound and surrounding area, including indications that a nearby Iranian Revolutionary Guards compound was in the vicinity. By including this material, the article sought to underline both the scale of destruction and the need for accountability in cases where civilian sites are hit during hostilities.
Beyond schools, the article also pointed to damage affecting Iran’s medical sector. Amnesty International cited the head of the Medical Council of Iran, who said that 10 medical centres had been damaged by Israeli and US attacks. The organization linked this development to wider concerns about the vulnerability of hospitals and healthcare workers during conflict. It also recalled that Iranian hospitals had previously been subjected to security-force raids during the unrest of January 2026, reinforcing its broader argument that the current conflict is unfolding in a context where rights protections were already under significant strain.
Another issue raised in the report is the renewed internet shutdown inside Iran on 28 February. Amnesty International said the blackout prevented millions of people from accessing vital information about the conflict and from contacting relatives inside and outside the country. It also argued that the shutdown hindered the flow of information about possible violations of international humanitarian and human rights law. In that sense, the article presented digital restrictions not as a separate technical matter, but as part of the broader impact of war on civilian life, emergency communication, and public accountability.
The organization also drew attention to growing fears for the safety of prisoners in Iran, including protesters and dissidents detained after the January 2026 uprising. Amnesty International said concerns were being intensified by reports of explosions near prisons and other detention facilities, as well as by Israel’s earlier attack on Tehran’s Evin prison during the 12-day war. The article added that human rights defenders feared Iranian authorities could use the current conflict as a pretext for harsher repression, including torture, ill-treatment, and arbitrary or extrajudicial executions. Amnesty International therefore called for the release of all those arbitrarily detained and for measures to protect other prisoners, including temporary humanitarian release where appropriate.
At the same time, the report described the regional consequences of Iran’s retaliatory attacks. According to Amnesty International, Iranian missile and drone operations reached Israel and multiple Gulf states, including the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, and Saudi Arabia. The article said media reports and official statements indicated that some attacks, or debris from intercepted projectiles, caused deaths, injuries, and damage to civilian infrastructure. In Abu Dhabi, for example, authorities said debris from an intercepted Iranian drone targeting Zayed International Airport killed one person and injured seven. Amnesty International also reported that on 2 March, both Qatar and Saudi Arabia said Iranian attacks had targeted oil facilities, while a Gulf Cooperation Council statement condemned what it described as indiscriminate and reckless missile and drone attacks.
In Israel, the article said that at least 10 people had been killed and dozens injured as a result of Iranian attacks. Amnesty International cited reports of nine deaths and more than 20 injuries in Beit Shemesh after a ballistic missile strike, as well as the death of a woman in the Tel Aviv area from falling shrapnel. It also noted that local authorities reported damage to at least 40 buildings in Tel Aviv. By including these details, the report emphasized that the consequences of the conflict are not confined to one side, but are affecting civilians in several countries simultaneously.
The article also linked the wider escalation to conditions in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. It said that Israel had imposed severe movement restrictions across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and had closed external crossings into and out of the territory, including Kerem Shalom/Karem Abu Salem and Rafah, thereby blocking aid and effectively placing Gaza under siege. Amnesty International noted that Kerem Shalom/Karem Abu Salem was reopened on 3 March, but argued that the broader measures were worsening an already serious humanitarian situation for Palestinians.
Elsewhere, the report mentioned developments in Iraq, where a faction of Iran-aligned militias calling itself the Islamic Resistance reportedly claimed responsibility for multiple drone attacks on Erbil and later Baghdad, mainly targeting US military facilities. Amnesty International also said that, according to Kurdish Iranian opposition groups, drone strikes had hit their positions in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq after warnings from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. These references reinforced the organization’s description of a conflict spreading across national borders and drawing in armed actors beyond the immediate Iran-Israel confrontation.
A separate section of the Amnesty International report focused on Lebanon, where tensions between Hezbollah and Israel intensified after Hezbollah rocket fire that the group said was retaliation for the killing of Ali Khamenei, identified in the article as Iran’s supreme leader and commander-in-chief. Amnesty International reported that Israel sharply escalated attacks on Lebanon, including the suburbs of Beirut, during the night of 2 March. According to Lebanese authorities cited in the article, Israeli air strikes had killed at least 40 people and injured 246 by 3 March.
The organization also highlighted the humanitarian consequences of Israel’s evacuation orders in Lebanon. It said that a new warning issued shortly after midnight on 2 March covered more than 50 villages in the south and east of the country, contributing to panic, road congestion, and new waves of displacement. Additional warnings early on 3 March reportedly expanded the threatened area further. Amnesty International argued that broad evacuation notices of this kind can place large civilian populations under severe pressure, especially in a setting where many people have already been displaced repeatedly.
Another issue raised in the Lebanon section was the targeting of Hezbollah-affiliated financial institutions. Amnesty International said the Israeli military announced on 2 March that it would strike such institutions in multiple locations and then carried out those attacks. The article recalled that Israel had previously targeted branches of the same network in October 2024, which Amnesty International had earlier described as a likely violation of international humanitarian law and said should be investigated as a possible war crime. In the new report, the organization reiterated the legal principle that direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects, as well as indiscriminate or disproportionate strikes, are prohibited under international law.
Overall, Amnesty International framed the crisis as a test of both civilian protection norms and the broader international legal order. The article repeatedly stressed that airports, hospitals, schools, prisons, homes, and other civilian infrastructure must not be targeted, and that all parties should allow humanitarian access and conduct immediate investigations where civilians are killed or injured. It also urged the international community to intensify diplomatic efforts to prevent further escalation and to avoid conduct that could contribute to additional violations.
Conclusion
The Amnesty International report presents the current Middle East escalation as a conflict whose effects are rapidly spreading across borders and falling heavily on civilian populations. Its account draws attention not only to deaths and destruction, but also to the legal standards that govern armed conflict and the risks posed when those standards are ignored.
More broadly, the article shows why the situation is attracting international concern: the conflict now affects multiple states, key civilian infrastructure, and already fragile humanitarian conditions. As presented by Amnesty International, the crisis is becoming both a regional security emergency and a wider challenge to the enforcement of international humanitarian law.
Need an expert witness report for your case?
Our country experts provide independent reports for asylum and immigration cases in the UK, US, Canada, and EU.
Order an expert witness report |
Find a country expert witness |
About our expert team
