Overview
- A missile strike on Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School on Feb. 28, 2026 killed scores of civilians, most of them schoolgirls, and became the conflict’s deadliest single incident for noncombatants.
- Independent analyses by rights groups and munitions experts, plus recovered fragments and video, point to a U.S.-manufactured Tomahawk cruise missile as the likely weapon used.
- Twenty-five Democratic senators sent a July 13 letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper asking for an unclassified version of the investigation, a full unredacted report, a prevention and remediation plan, and a congressional briefing by July 20.
- The Pentagon says the probe is ongoing and has no public update while President Trump questioned whether the findings will ever be released and suggested photographic evidence could be AI-generated.
- Lawmakers and rights groups say reporting of stale imagery and warnings ignored in targeting databases raises urgent questions about accountability and civilian-harm prevention and could trigger tighter congressional oversight and legal scrutiny.