In the early morning hours of June 13, 2025, the Israeli military launched a series of extensive and coordinated airstrikes on Iran, targeting at least 25 densely populated residential neighborhoods in Tehran, the capital, as well as several other cities across the country, including Qom, Hamedan, Sanandaj, Arak, Ilam, Kermanshah, Borujerd, Khorramabad, etc. These attacks struck not only urban areas but also scientific and nuclear research facilities. Preliminary reports and images emerging from the ground indicate widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure and the deaths of numerous non-combatants, including children.
Among those killed in the attacks were several Iranian university professors, nuclear scientists, and their families, as well as civilians — deliberate strikes that suggest an expansion of Israel’s illegal campaign of targeted assassinations. These acts represent grave breaches of international humanitarian law, including provisions of the Geneva Conventions that explicitly protect civilians and prohibit the targeting of academic and scientific personnel not engaged in hostilities.
This is not an isolated act of aggression. It marks a dangerous and deliberate expansion of a broader regional military campaign that began with Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza. Since October 2023, more than 60,000 Palestinians — the majority of them civilians and a significant proportion of them women and children — have been killed in Israeli air and ground operations in Gaza. Civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, schools, refugee shelters, and water systems, have been systematically targeted. Human rights experts, UN officials, and international legal scholars have increasingly identified these acts as amounting to war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and genocide.1
Throughout this period, Israel has also conducted strikes in Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen, with open disregard for the sovereignty of neighboring states and international peace frameworks. Its operations have continued with the full military and diplomatic support of the United States and other Western allies. At the United Nations Security Council, every attempt to pass a resolution condemning Israeli violations or calling for accountability has been vetoed by the U.S., reinforcing Israel’s impunity, allowing it to carry out its campaign of atrocities unchecked.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent statement that “the Iranian people are not the target” is directly contradicted by the facts on the ground. Civilian homes, public buildings, and entire families have been destroyed in these latest attacks. As was seen in Gaza, indiscriminate and disproportionate use of force has defined Israel’s military strategy — violating the principles of distinction, proportionality, and necessity under international law.
As a feminist and women’s rights organization committed to peace, Femena condemns in the strongest possible terms the ongoing attacks, including the targeting of Iranian civilians and infrastructure. We affirm our stance that Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal whose leadership has overseen a systematic campaign of state violence against civilian populations across the region. His actions — in Gaza, in Lebanon, in Syria, in Yemen, and now in Iran — constitute clear and repeated violations of international law, and he must be held accountable before the International Criminal Court or a special tribunal.
Femena is also concerned with the chaos and destruction these attacks have inflicted on Iranians as a whole. Since the start of the attacks which are ongoing, internet communication has been disrupted, and Iranian authorities have taken measures to impose restrictions on citizens, including outlawing efforts to document developments through photos and videos. We continue to be concerned that the Iranian authorities will use this moment of crisis to further curtail and violate the rights of citizens, including those in ethnic minority areas, which have also been the target of Israel’s unlawful attacks.
We further denounce the inaction of the international community. The continued silence — and, in some cases, open support — from powerful nations sends a dangerous message: that some lives are worth less than others and that international law can be selectively applied. This is not neutrality; it is complicity.
We call on the United Nations, the International Criminal Court, civil society organizations, all women’s organizations, defenders of human rights and justice, and peace groups to act urgently. The people of Gaza, of Iran, and of the broader Middle East cannot afford further delay. The international laws that protect civilians must be enforced — not only for those who suffer today, but for the future of the international order and human dignity.
1. In a provisional ruling in January 2024, the International Court of Justice found that South Africa’s claims of genocide for which it sought protection are “plausible.” Since then, numerous human rights experts, UN officials, prominent international NGOS, international legal scholars, and genocide historians have unequivocally affirmed their opinion that Israeli’s acts constitute war crimes, ethnic cleansing and genocide.