WANA (Jul 05) – Mojtaba Maleki, a volunteer with the Iranian Red Crescent Society, was killed on Saturday, June 15, 2025 in an Israeli drone strike on Tehran. He was 32 years old, from Takestan in Qazvin province, and had been married for just one year.

 

According to his family, even the night before the mission he didn’t complain about exhaustion or sleeplessness, and prepared eagerly to go. Early in the morning, he left for his assignment and made one last call to his mother before heading to the front line of rescue operations in western Tehran. He told her: “Mom, pray that I come back.”

 

That day’s Israeli drone attack was among the heaviest ever recorded in Tehran. Air raid sirens sounded multiple times across the city. Maleki and his team were working in the Chitgar area, evacuating the wounded from a damaged building. Despite repeated sounds of renewed strikes, his colleagues said he “insisted on getting even the last injured person out.”

Mojtaba Maleki’s Last Selfie Before Being Killed, Together With His Fellow Relief Workers / WANA News Agency

Mojtaba Maleki’s Last Selfie Before Being Killed, Together With His Fellow Relief Workers / WANA News Agency

At the height of the rescue operation, a suicide drone struck their ambulance, which was clearly marked with the Red Crescent emblem. The massive explosion sent up a column of black smoke. Fellow rescuers emphasized that everyone in the team wore vests and official insignia, and the vehicle was unmistakably marked.

 

One survivor from the team said: “We had no weapons, only first-aid kits and stretchers. We couldn’t believe they would target us. We were risking our lives to keep people alive.”

 

Maleki was killed instantly. Hours later, his body was recovered from the burnt-out wreckage of the vehicle. Published photos show the Red Crescent ambulance completely destroyed by fire.

 

The Iranian Red Crescent Society announced that at least four relief workers were killed in the Israeli strikes: Mojtaba Maleki, Mehdi Zartaji, Amirhossein Jamshidpour, and Yaser Ziouri. Dozens more were injured, and multiple ambulances and relief vehicles were completely destroyed. Over 8,500 relief workers in Tehran and surrounding areas were on alert during this period, while rescue stations and vehicles were repeatedly targeted.

At his funeral, Mojtaba’s father said in a choked voice: “Our knees are weak with grief, but we hold our heads high. My son gave his life for his people. That is our honor.” His family calls him a “martyr on the path of humanity”—a phrase in Iran that goes beyond military service to describe anyone who gives their life defending others.

 

Red Crescent officials stressed that attacks on aid workers and clearly marked relief vehicles constitute war crimes under the Geneva Conventions. They said the locations of relief bases had been repeatedly shared with all parties to the conflict, and international agencies had been informed.

 

The burned-out ambulance in which Mojtaba Maleki died has been installed as a memorial in Tehran’s Haft-e-Tir Square. Displayed with its scorched frame and Red Crescent markings, it stands as a stark reminder of Israel’s “days of war and crime” against Iran and evidence of attacks on civilians and aid workers in the heart of the city.

A woman looks at an ambulance burned by Israeli attacks on a street, amid the Iran-Israel conflict, in Tehran, Iran, June 23, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency)

Images and accounts from Chitgar offer a grim picture of modern urban warfare: half-ruined buildings, burning rescue vehicles, and relief workers whose mission was to save lives but who became targets themselves.