Colleagues at Iran's hospitals remember medical staff killed by Israel

Middle East Eye

15 hours ago

Seven medical centres were targeted during Israel's 12-day attack on Iran, which ended with a ceasefire earlier this week.
Six of these were in Tehran and one in the west of the country.
Valiasr Hospital, Motahari Burn Center, Khatam Hospital, Tehran's Welfare Center, Red Crescent Rehabilitation Center, and the Red Crescent Peace Building in Tehran, along with Farabi Hospital in Kermanshah in western Iran, were attacked, resulting in the deaths of numerous medical staff, doctors and nurses.
According to Mohammad Raeiszadeh, the head of the Iranian Medical Council, the deaths of at least five doctors have been confirmed so far.
The Ministry of Health's Crisis Information Center also said on Thursday, 26 June, that six healthcare workers were killed and 20 others injured.
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However, there is still no exact number for how many people were present in these medical centres during the attacks and how many died.
Hojjat Ruyin-Tan
Hojjat Ruyin-Tan, a hospital cleaner at Valiasr Hospital in Tehran, was one of the victims. He was killed on Monday, 22 June, when the hospital was bombed.
"Hojjat and his wife both worked at the hospital. He was around 50 years old. To make ends meet, he also worked night shifts as a security guard at a residential building," a colleague who did not want to be named told Middle East Eye.
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'Life is expensive, and you know that a worker's salary is not enough to cover expenses. He had a teenage son and daughter, and their costs were high, too.'
Hojjat was buried under the rubble after the Israeli attack and rescue teams found his body a day later.
"Now, his poor wife is left with two teenage kids. She was not on shift that day and survived," said the colleague.
"I don't know how she can afford to live alone with all these rising costs.'
Marziyeh Askari
Marziyeh Askari, a paediatric specialist, was killed on the first day of Israeli attacks in her parents' home.
She was a faculty member at Bahrami Hospital in Tehran and had gone to visit her parents in a 14-storey building in Shahid Chamran neighbourhood.
That building was hit by Israeli warplanes and many people were killed.
A coworker of Askari who did not want to be named said: 'Marziyeh had a very hard time three years ago. During childbirth, she had a serious health issue, had a stroke and went into a coma.
'She used to say she saw death with her own eyes. We thought she would never fully recover, but it was like a miracle that she came back to life.'
That miracle only lasted three years. At age 41, Marziyeh was killed in the Israeli attack along with her parents and her three-year-old child.
Their bodies were unrecognisable. At first, their names were not on the official list of victims, but DNA tests later confirmed that all four had died in the bombing.
Mojtaba Maleki
Mojtaba Maleki was a Red Crescent paramedic in Tehran.
He was killed on 17 June while helping the injured.
One of his coworkers, who was with him at the time, said: 'We had just gotten out of the ambulance to help some people. Mojtaba heard the sound of a drone first and shouted, 'Get down!'
'We all dropped to the ground quickly, but Mojtaba didn't have enough time. Then we heard the explosion. When we ran to him, he was already dead.'
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A friend of Mojtaba Maleki, who did not want to be named, said: 'After the attacks started, I told him things were very dangerous. I asked him to take time off and come with me to the north of Iran until things calmed down. But he got upset and said, 'Is this how you see me? If there's a day people like me are needed, it's today.'
"Mojtaba came from a religious and devoted family. His father was a cleric, and several of his relatives were killed in the Iran-Iraq war.
"That family background, along with his own spirit, made him deeply committed to his dangerous job. He wanted to save as many lives as possible.'
But Mojtaba did not get much time to do that. The Israeli attack on the Red Crescent ambulance took his life quickly, leaving his family in mourning.
Mossad statement
The official Persian-language account of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad posted a message on Twitter on 26 June, asking Iranians to contact Israel for help with their medical needs.
The announcement said Israeli specialists were ready to provide medical advice.
One part of the Persian-language message read: "The Islamic Republic doesn't care about the well-being of its citizens. We are here with a team of medical experts ready to help. You can contact us using a VPN through WhatsApp, Telegram, or Signal."
A colleague of Askari reacted to Mossad's message, saying: "Sometimes in life, you hear things that are just unbelievable. There seems to be no limit to Israeli shamelessness. The same regime that bombed hospitals in Iran and Gaza is now pretending to care about Iranian lives?"
Official numbers likely incomplete
The shock following the Israeli attack on Iran is still lingering, and so far, there is no full list of those who have died.
According to officials of the Islamic Republic, as of Thursday, 627 people were killed and 4,870 injured in the Israeli attacks. But many believe the real number will rise in the coming days.
In Iran, it is common for authorities to release real casualty numbers gradually. Among the nearly 5,000 injured, more deaths are expected as some succumb to their wounds.
It remains unclear how many of those killed were in medical facilities, or how many were doctors and nurses - people who had no involvement in Iran's nuclear, missile or political programmes.