“We were in our practice when we heard the first impact. We rushed to the door,” she recalled.

Then another missile struck, plunging the girls and their coaches into darkness as smoke and heat filled the sports hall. The force of the blast slammed the doors shut.

“We couldn’t see anything,” the girls’ volleyball coach, Rahimeh Shehabi, told Middle East Eye. “We could only hear the screams of the children.”

As the missiles struck the school and sports hall, a football game was underway outside.

Eleven-year-old Mahdiar was playing with his friends, including 12-year-olds Ilya Khatami and Abdulmosavar Rahmani, when explosive shrapnel tore through the area.

…

The fourth missile hit here," Ilya’s father, Mohammad Khatami, gesturing towards the collapsed corner of the gym, told MEE. “The force of the blast struck Ilya in the back of the head.”

For Khatami, returning to the scene was emotionally difficult, though he took some solace in knowing that his son died while rushing to help those trapped inside. His coach was also killed.