TEHRAN – Israel targeted the vehicle of an Iranian medical doctor in Beirut on Tuesday, bringing the number of Iranian civilians killed during the regime’s ongoing aggression in Lebanon to two.  

Dr. Ali Heydari had volunteered to join a medical team deployed by Tehran to provide aid in Lebanon, where Israeli airstrikes have been hitting civilian areas in recent weeks. Heydari was killed after Israeli drones shot at the car he was driving in Beirut. 

Israel has consistently targeted hospitals, medical facilities, and staff since the start of its ongoing war in Gaza over a year ago. With Gaza's medical system in ruins from continuous attacks, it appears Israel is adopting a similar strategy in Lebanon, given its recent attacks on practitioners as well as hospitals in Beirut. 

Iran’s foreign ministry published a statement on Wednesday, condemning Heydari's killing as an act of war crime. “The targeting of Dr. Heydari by the Zionist regime, who was diligently working as a physician and rescuer to aid the injured and assist patients, constitutes a flagrant violation of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, which prohibit attacks on hospitals, medical facilities, doctors, and healthcare personnel, and is classified as a war crime,” the statement read. 

The foreign ministry also noted that the international community has an obligation to stop Israeli crimes. “We emphasize the responsibility of relevant organizations and institutions, including the International Committee of the Red Cross and the World Health Organization, to document the ongoing egregious violations of international humanitarian law and the assaults on hospitals and medical personnel in Gaza and Lebanon.”

The international community has done little to rein in Israel in the past year, despite numerous instances of crime against humanity committed by the regime. Israel has even targeted UN aid workers and UN positions in the region without facing any consequences. 

The attack on the Iranian physician was the second such assault by Israel in the past week. On Sunday, Masoumeh Karbasi, an Iranian woman, was killed along with her Lebanese husband, Reza Awadeh, when their car was targeted on a Beirut highway. The couple fled the vehicle after realizing they were under attack but were tragically killed while running hand-in-hand in an adjacent field.

‘My parent were madly in love’

The couple who was tragically assassinated by Israel on Sunday leaves behind five children, ages 17, 14, 10, 8, and 3. The children met with Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on Wednesday, during a meeting he had with organizers of a congress honoring the martyrs of Iran's Fars Province. The children's mother, a native of Fars Province, is set to be laid to rest in a holy shrine in Shiraz.

The oldest of the children, Mahdi, revealed to the Leader that both his parents were computer engineers. “My mom was a computer engineer and my dad held a PhD in the same field. They were madly in love with each other. They were even holding hands when they were losing their lives,” the teenager said while standing close to Ayatollah Khamenei. 

The children were accompanied by their paternal grandmother, who is a professor of Persian Language and Literature in Lebanon. She told reporters that the deceased Awadeh’s father could not leave Lebanon as he was needed back home due to being a heart surgeon.