At least 7,300 people have been killed across Iran and Lebanon since the US-Israeli war with Iran began on 28 February, according to official casualty reports from both countries, with a deal now agreed to end the conflict.
In Iran, state news agency IRNA reported on 26 April that at least 3,468 Iranians, including 499 women, had been killed since the US and Israeli strikes began. That figure comprised 1,460 civilians and 2,008 military personnel, Iranian authorities said.
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) put the count higher at 3,636, according to a report issued on 18 May. HRANA said their figure comprised 1,701 civilians, including 307 children, 1,221 military personnel, and 714 individuals whose identity or status could not be confirmed. The organisation described its documented figures as “absolute minimums”, citing difficulty accessing sites, government-imposed internet blackouts and political repression.
“Authorities routinely withhold information about casualties, and families may face pressure not to speak publicly about the circumstances of a death,” said Skylar Thompson, the organisation’s deputy director.
Iranian authorities accused the US and Israel of hitting civilian infrastructure in strikes across the country. Multiple investigations found that a US missile strike on the opening day of the war hit a school in the town of Minab, which Iranian officials said killed 168 people, including 110 children. The US military said it is investigating the strike.
Days later, Iranian authorities said 20 people were killed when a missile hit a sports hall during a girls’ volleyball match in the town of Lamerd. The US denied it was behind the strike, but experts told BBC Verify that a US-made Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) was likely used.
The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah restarted on 2 March, when Hezbollah launched rockets into Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s supreme leader. Israel responded with a campaign of airstrikes and a ground invasion in southern Lebanon.
Since then, Lebanese health authorities said 3,912 people have been confirmed as killed in Israeli attacks, among them 366 women and 247 children. It is not clear whether or how many Hezbollah fighters are among them. While Hezbollah has not released its own figures, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last month that 3,000 fighters had been killed since the war with Iran began.
In early March, the Lebanese health ministry said 41 people were killed in a major Israeli air and ground operation around a town in the eastern Bekaa Valley. On 8 April, a massive wave of Israeli strikes killed at least 361 people in the space of 10 minutes, according to Lebanese authorities. The IDF said it targeted 250 Hezbollah operatives that day. Lebanon’s health ministry disputed that, saying the vast majority of those killed were civilians.
The United Nations said seven of its peacekeepers have also been killed in Lebanon, the most recent on 4 June.
The Israeli campaign attracted significant criticism for inflicting heavy civilian casualties. On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump sharply attacked the IDF’s conduct, saying that “too many people have been killed” by the strikes. “You don’t have to knock down an apartment house every time you’re looking for somebody, because there are a lot of people in those apartment houses, and they’re not all Hezbollah,” Trump said at the G7 summit in Paris.
Israeli authorities said 60 people have been killed, most by Iranian attacks and fighting with Hezbollah, as of 18 June. Among these were 29 civilians, 21 of whom were killed in Iranian missile strikes according to government figures supplied to the BBC. Another 31 were IDF soldiers killed in combat.
Israel has frequently accused Iran of deploying cluster munitions against population centres. In March, Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Tehran of committing war crimes by targeting civilian centres with cluster munitions. “Cluster munition bomblets are dispersed over a wide area, making them unlawfully indiscriminate in violation of the laws of war,” said Patrick Thompson, a crisis, conflict and arms researcher with HRW.
Iran’s initial response to the war also saw it strike neighbouring Arab states hosting US bases, launching waves of ballistic missiles and explosive drones that hit a range of civilian locations. BBC Verify has documented attacks on military bases in eight countries — Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq, Jordan, Bahrain and Oman.
The wave of strikes prompted angry responses. Dr Anwar Gargash, an adviser to the UAE’s president, wrote on X: “Your war is not with your neighbours, and through this escalation, you confirm the narrative of those who see Iran as the region’s primary source of danger.”
Across the Gulf states, at least 13 people were killed in the United Arab Emirates, according to the country’s defence ministry. In Iraq, more than 100 people have died, according to figures gathered by Al Jazeera and Agence France Presse, including at least 80 members of the paramilitary Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) killed in US and Israeli strikes.
The Pentagon said 13 US military personnel based in the Middle East had also been killed — seven in Iranian attacks and six in a refuelling plane crash in Iraq. The International Maritime Organisation said 14 sailors with a range of nationalities had died in strikes on vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.
Dr Iain Overton, executive director at the UK-based charity Action on Armed Violence, said the conflict being fought across multiple countries means casualty figures “are often incomplete, delayed or impossible to independently verify”. He added that “the final death toll will likely remain contested” for years, noting that “access restrictions, damaged infrastructure and political sensitivities” in parts of the Middle East have limited reporting and in some cases suppressed casualty numbers entirely. “Experience from conflicts in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere suggests that the final death toll will likely remain contested and could prove substantially higher than the numbers currently available,” Dr Overton said.