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Israel has said it does not target Iranian civilians, but hundreds have died in the violence, among them a poet and her family, an equestrian and a graphic designer.
Published June 18, 2025Updated June 19, 2025, 12:46 a.m. ET
An 8-year-old girl who loved dancing in a red dress at her dentist’s office. A 28-year-old national equestrian champion. A poet one week away from her 24th birthday. A graphic designer who worked at National Geographic. Grandparents in their 80s.
All are among the civilians killed during Israeli airstrikes on Iran.
Israel has said it does not target Iranian civilians, but hundreds have died in the violence. Every day since the war began, a new face, a new name, a new story of a life that ended violently and abruptly has emerged. The Ministry of Health has not updated casualty numbers since Sunday, when it said at least 224 people had been killed and nearly 2,000 injured, including women and children. Those figures are expected to grow in the coming days.
In interviews with more than 50 residents of Tehran, Shiraz, Isfahan, Ahvaz, Mashhad, Sanandaj, Amol, Ghazvin, Semnan, Karaj, Neishabour, and Tabriz, doctors, families and friends described the toll of the strikes. The New York Times also reviewed scores of videos, photos and testimonies documenting civilian casualties, injuries and the destruction of residential buildings.
The Israel Defense Forces have said the attacks on Iran are targeted assassinations of military commanders, government officials and nuclear scientists. But missiles and drones have also hit high-rise buildings and multistory apartment complexes where civilians also reside. Dr. Hossein Kermanpour, the spokesman for the Ministry of Health, said 90 percent of casualties were civilians, not military.
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In Tehran, the frequency of the Israeli strikes has completely upended daily life. The constant thud of air defense systems, the loud boom of explosions and the wailing sirens of ambulances and fire trucks have replaced the sounds of a metropolis typically buzzing with traffic, street music and the Muslim call to prayer.
