A US strike landed next to a children’s cancer hospital in Iran on Wednesday, prompting the evacuation of patients and eliciting comparisons to February’s deadly attack on a primary school in Minab.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said in a post on X that the attack near Shahid Baqaei Hospital in Ahvaz forced 211 patients “undergoing chemotherapy” to evacuate.

“This constitutes a cowardly war crime against the most innocent of human beings, children who are bravely fighting for their lives,” he said.

“Those who ceaselessly preach human rights, yet deliberately turn a blind eye to the targeting of hospitals and health centres, have forfeited every shred of moral credibility.”

The US has not commented on Baghaei’s allegation.

Hospital staff said that some of the evacuees were reliant on oxygen and ventilators. The “intense” blast was so close that they thought the hospital had been hit, they said.

“Some people had children in their arms, some had IVs in their hands, and some were in wheelchairs,” one member of staff told Al Jazeera.

Iranian officials report that 17 hospitals have been severely damaged since the start of the US and Israel’s illegal war  on 28 February, and during a previous conflict with Israel in June 2025.

US president Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened to bomb Iran’s civilian infrastructure. “We’re going to knock out all their power plants, we’re going to knock out all their bridges, unless they get to the table and negotiate,” he said. Targeting civilian infrastructure is illegal under international law.

“This hospital was designed for children with cancer, so an attack in the vicinity of this hospital is reminding Iranians of the bitter memory of the Minab primary school,” said Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar, referring to a US strike on the first day of the war that killed at least 168 children.

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