Israel says it's hitting Iranian government targets, including the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran
Published: 23 Jun. 2025, 20:50
![In this photo released on Monday, June 23, 2025, by Iranian army press service, Iran's army commander-in-chief Gen. Amir Hatami attends a meeting in Zolfaghar central headquarters, Iran. [AP/YONHAP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/06/23/725af05f-a2e0-46e7-8798-fb1a4ad8ce9d.jpg)
In this photo released on Monday, June 23, 2025, by Iranian army press service, Iran's army commander-in-chief Gen. Amir Hatami attends a meeting in Zolfaghar central headquarters, Iran. [AP/YONHAP]
Israel’s Defense Ministry says Israel is now striking Iranian government targets in Tehran, including the notorious Evin Prison in the Iranian capital.
Other targets include the security headquarters of the paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the city's Palestine Square and the paramilitary Basij volunteer corps building, which is a part of the Revolutionary Guard.
“The Iranian dictator will be punished with full force for attacking the Israeli homefront,” the ministry said.
Iran's underground Fordo enrichment site was hit again Monday while Iran fired a salvo of missiles and drones at Israel and warned the United States that its military now has a “free hand” to attack U.S. targets in the wake of the Donald Trump administration's massive strikes on Iranian nuclear sites.
The Fordo facility was one of those hit in Sunday's attack, and it was struck again on Monday, Iranian state television reported. There was no immediate word on damage nor who launched the attack, though Israel said earlier it was conducting airstrikes on Iran.
![A damaged building after a missile strike launched from Iran in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Sunday, June 22, 2025. [AP/YONHAP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/06/23/af53f329-5d61-4585-a28e-4c7161838936.jpg)
A damaged building after a missile strike launched from Iran in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Sunday, June 22, 2025. [AP/YONHAP]
In Vienna, Austria, the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog said he expected there to be heavy damage at the Fordo facility already following Sunday's U.S. airstrike there with sophisticated bunker-buster bombs.
“Given the explosive payload utilized ... very significant damage ... is expected to have occurred,” said Rafael Mariano Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
With the strikes on Sunday on Iranian nuclear sites, the United States inserted itself into Israel’s war, prompting fears of a wider regional conflict. Iran said the United States had crossed “a very big red line” with its risky gambit to strike the three sites with missiles and 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs.
Several Iranian officials, including Atomic Energy Organization of Iran spokesperson Behrouz Kamalvandi, have claimed Iran removed nuclear material from targeted sites ahead of time.
Grossi told the IAEA board of governors on Monday that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had informed him on June 13 that Iran would “adopt special measures to protect nuclear equipment and materials.”
![In this photo released on Monday, June 23, 2025, by Iranian army press service, Iran's army commander-in-chief Gen. Amir Hatami, center, Admiral Mahmoud Mousavi, right, and Admiral Habibollah Sayyari attend a meeting in Zolfaghar central headquarters, Iran. [AP/YONHAP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/06/23/2a852bb2-eed2-409d-9a23-c6deae09b6e7.jpg)
In this photo released on Monday, June 23, 2025, by Iranian army press service, Iran's army commander-in-chief Gen. Amir Hatami, center, Admiral Mahmoud Mousavi, right, and Admiral Habibollah Sayyari attend a meeting in Zolfaghar central headquarters, Iran. [AP/YONHAP]
“I indicated that any transfer of nuclear material from a safeguarded facility to another location in Iran must be declared,” Grossi said, without saying whether Iran had responded.
Iran described its Monday attack on Israel as a new wave of its Operation “True Promise 3,” saying it was targeting the Israeli cities of Haifa and Tel Aviv, according to Iranian state television.
Explosions were also heard in Jerusalem. There were no immediate reports of damage.
In Iran, witnesses reported Israeli airstrikes hit areas around Iran’s capital, Tehran, around midday. One Israeli strike hit the gate of Iran’s notorious Evin prison in Tehran, Iranian state television reported.
The report shared what appeared to be black-and-white-surveillance footage of the strike. The prison is known for holding dual nationals and Westerners often used by Iran as bargaining chips in negotiations with the West.
![Israeli Iron Dome air defense system fires to intercept missiles over Tel Aviv, Israel, on June 13, 2025. [AP/YONHAP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/06/23/c1b7b6b3-5667-49bc-afb0-2b8e470ed8e5.jpg)
Israeli Iron Dome air defense system fires to intercept missiles over Tel Aviv, Israel, on June 13, 2025. [AP/YONHAP]
Israel did not immediately acknowledge carrying out the strike.
Evin also has specialized units for political prisoners and those with Western ties, run by the Revolutionary Guard, which answers only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The facility is the target of both U.S. and European Union sanctions.
Earlier Monday, Iranian Gen. Abdolrahim Mousavi, the chief of joint staff of armed forces, warned Washington that its strikes had given Iranian forces a “free hand “ to “act against U.S. interests and its army.”
Tens of thousands of U.S. troops are based in the Middle East, many in locations within range of short-range Iranian missiles.
The U.S. described its Sunday attack on the Fordo and Natanz enrichment facilities, as well as the Isfahan, Iran, nuclear sit, as a one-off to take out Iran's nuclear program, but Trump has warned of additional strikes if Tehran retaliates.
Mousavi described the U.S. attack as violating Iran’s sovereignty and being tantamount to invading the country, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.
![Protesters chant slogans as one of them holds up a poster of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a protest following the U.S. attacks on nuclear sites in Iran, in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, June 22, 2025. [AP/YONHAP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/06/23/9612226d-b071-4cbd-838f-e5d1fba0c487.jpg)
Protesters chant slogans as one of them holds up a poster of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a protest following the U.S. attacks on nuclear sites in Iran, in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, June 22, 2025. [AP/YONHAP]
In the wake of the U.S. attacks on Iran, calls came from across the globe for de-escalation and the return to diplomacy to try and resolve the conflict.
On Monday, the European Union's top diplomat said the bloc remained “very much focused on the diplomatic solution.”
“The concerns of retaliation and this war escalating are huge,” Kaja Kallas said at the start of a foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels, where Iran has jumped to the top of the agenda.
“Especially closing of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran is something that would be extremely dangerous and not good for anybody,” Kallas said, referring to a maritime route crucial for oil transport.
After Sunday's attacks, Iranian officials repeated their longtime threats of possibly closing the key shipping lane.
![Members from the Popular Mobilization Forces attend the funeral of commander Haider al-Moussawi from Kataeb Sayyed Al-Shuhada who was killed with Hussein Khalil, a former aide to the late Hezbollah's former leader Hassan Nasrallah an Israeli airstrike inside Iran, in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, June 22, 2025. [AP/YONHAP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/06/23/847ac909-0500-4e7e-b3cd-bc9a0d4518cb.jpg)
Members from the Popular Mobilization Forces attend the funeral of commander Haider al-Moussawi from Kataeb Sayyed Al-Shuhada who was killed with Hussein Khalil, a former aide to the late Hezbollah's former leader Hassan Nasrallah an Israeli airstrike inside Iran, in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, June 22, 2025. [AP/YONHAP]
Iran, which insists its nuclear program is for civilian purposes only, previously agreed to limit its uranium enrichment and allow international inspectors access to its nuclear sites per a 2015 deal with the United States, France, China, Russia, Britain and Germany in exchange for sanctions relief.
But after Trump pulled the United States unilaterally out of the deal during his first term, Iran began enriching uranium up to 60 percent, a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90 percent and restricting access to its nuclear facilities.
As he arrived in Brussels on Monday for a meeting with his EU counterparts, German Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs Johann Wadephul renewed calls for Iran to agree again to direct talks with the United States but says Europe still has a role to play.
“We already made it very clear to the Iranian side that a real precondition for a settlement to the conflict is that Iran be ready to negotiate directly with the U.S.,” he said, while adding that Britain, France and Germany, known as the E3, “will contribute what we can.”
Araghchi was meeting on Monday in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin, one of Iran's key allies.
AP
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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