A devastating Israeli strike on Evin Prison in Tehran during Operation Rising Lion —carried out just one day before a ceasefire was set to take effect—left at least 71 people dead, according to Iranian officials.

Among the victims was the facility’s chief prosecutor, known for overseeing high-profile trials of regime opponents. Satellite images analyzed by The Washington Post on Sunday reveal extensive damage, while eyewitnesses described scenes of chaos and horror, including bodies scattered during visiting hours.

Footage of Evin prison after Israeli strike ( Video: AP )

Coordinated airstrikes hit multiple prison wings

The attack occurred around midday on a seemingly ordinary summer Tuesday in Tehran. A series of explosions shook the Evin prison complex, a longtime symbol of the Islamic Republic’s authoritarian rule.

A former inmate who happened to be nearby told The Washington Post that he “dreamed that he might one day see the prison gates come crashing down, but what he found that day was nightmarish. Everything was rubble,” he added. “It was really like complete chaos and apocalypse.”

6 View gallery Satellite image of strike zones at Evin Prison ( Photo: Maxar Technologies )

The satellite images from Maxar Technologies show destruction across four different areas of the prison compound, with impacted buildings located up to 600 meters (about 1,970 feet) apart.

These included the administrative wing, the prisoner visitation zone, the medical clinic and the isolation block of Ward 209—run by Iran’s Intelligence Ministry and often used to hold political prisoners and high-value detainees, typically blindfolded while being moved.

6 View gallery Satellite image of strike zones at Evin Prison ( Photo: Maxar Technologies/Handout via REUTERS )

Experts consulted by the outlet concluded the damage suggests four to six precision strikes rather than a single blast. “Based on the locations [of the damage], it appears there must have been at least four separate munitions, as nothing that was hit would seem volatile enough to cause damage to spread elsewhere,” said military intelligence analyst Sean O’Connor.

Another expert, William Goodhind, said the strikes appeared to target entry gates in the north and south of the compound and key staff facilities—suggesting the use of precision-guided munitions rather than area bombing.

6 View gallery Satellite image of strike zones at Evin Prison ( Photo: Maxar Technologies/Handout via REUTERS )

IDF spokesperson Brig. Gen. Ephraim Defrin said the site was being used for “intelligence operations against Israel, including counter-espionage,” and emphasized that the strike was carried out with “maximum precision to minimize harm to imprisoned civilians.”

The administrative building was completely destroyed, the clinic was heavily damaged and much of the surrounding vegetation—about 60 dunams (roughly 15 acres)—was incinerated. One of the casualties was a doctor working at the prison, along with a social worker and her 5-year-old son.

Civilian casualties and eyewitness accounts

Iranian authorities reported that among the 71 dead were 43 prison staff, two regular soldiers and four civilians unaffiliated with the prison—including two children. One of the most prominent victims was Ali Ghanatkar, Evin’s chief prosecutor, known for leading trials against political dissidents.

Located at the foot of the Alborz mountains in northern Tehran, Evin Prison has served for over four decades as the Iranian regime’s main detention center for journalists, foreign academics, diplomats and political opponents. Notable past detainees include Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi and Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian, who was held there for 18 months.

6 View gallery Destruction inside Evin Prison following the strike ( Photo: Mostafa Roudaki / MIZANONLINE / AFP )

6 View gallery Destruction inside Evin Prison following the strike ( Photo: Mostafa Roudaki / MIZANONLINE / AFP )

The strike reportedly occurred during designated visitation hours at the northern entrance, where civilians had arrived to see relatives. According to witnesses, guards opened fire on prisoners trying to flee the chaos.

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“I saw many dead bodies lying on the ground,” he said. “No one had come yet to cover them or to confirm if they were dead.” one witness told the outlet. He said he carried bodies and rescued the wounded from the rubble.

6 View gallery Destruction inside Evin Prison following the strike ( Photo: Mostafa Roudaki / MIZANONLINE / AFP )

One harrowing scene involved a man who had come with his daughter to deliver a document related to a relative’s release. After the blast, he tried for two hours to resuscitate his daughter. “For about two hours, her father was trying CPR,” he said. “Nothing happened and she died.”

Artist killed, prisoners relocated in harsh conditions

Among the dead was 61-year-old artist Mehrangiz Imanpour, who was struck by debris near the prison gate. Security cameras recorded her leaving her home shortly before 11 a.m. to pay a repairman—just under an hour before the strike.

Her body was found two days later near the visitation gate. A relative described her as an independent, generous and talented painter. “There aren’t enough kind words to describe her,” they said.

Footage of Evin prison after Israeli strike

In the aftermath, many prisoners were relocated under dire conditions. Reports indicate that more than 120 men are now held in a hall originally intended for 30 to 40 inmates. Women who remained at Evin the night of the attack were forced to clean up the rubble under the supervision of armed guards pointing rifles at them. They were later transferred to Qarchak Prison, infamous for poor hygiene, contaminated water and a severe shortage of basic services.

“There were guards everywhere, pointing guns at their heads, and no water, no gas, no telephone access,” said a former inmate who contacted some of the women. “Families were extremely worried.” That same inmate rushed to the scene immediately after the strike and said prisoners are the most vulnerable in such events: “Who knows what will happen next.”

The Israeli strike hit just before noon, a series of blasts that shook Tehran’s Evin Prison, a sprawling complex that holds thousands of prisoners and has been a symbol of the Iranian regime’s repression for more than four decades. A former prisoner who happened to be near the complex June 23 when the rockets fell said he ran toward the explosions. As an inmate, he dreamed that he might one day see the prison gates come crashing down, but what he found that day was nightmarish, he told The Washington Post.

“Everything was rubble,” said the man, who like others interviewed for this article spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals from authorities. “It was really like complete chaos and apocalypse.”

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After the strike, a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces, Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin, said the prison complex was used for “intelligence operations against the State of Israel, including counterespionage” and the strike was “carried out in a precise manner to mitigate harm to civilians imprisoned within the prison to the greatest extent possible.” The operation in Evin was conducted one day before a ceasefire ended the 12-day conflict between the two nations.

A Post review of satellite imagery and videos shared to social media revealed damage in four areas of the complex, with structures nearly 2,000 feet apart in ruins. Among the damaged locations were an administrative building, a visitation area for families, a medical center and a solitary confinement cell block, according to two former inmates who examined the images at The Post’s request.

Iranian officials have said at least 71 people were killed. According to online death notices and internal prison records examined by The Post, along with interviews, the dead included 43 prison staff members and two conscripted soldiers who were stationed there. At least four other civilians who did not work at the prison were killed, two of them children, The Post found.

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Multiple high-ranking prison officials were among the dead, death notices show, including Ali Ghanaatkar, the top prosecutor at Evin. Ghanaatkar’s prosecutions of dissidents have drawn criticism from human rights groups.

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For more than 40 years, Evin Prison, which sits at the foot of the Alborz Mountains in an upscale residential area, has been one of the most visible symbols of the Islamic Republic’s authoritarian rule. It is the Iranian security apparatus’s primary site for incarcerating dissidents, foreign journalists, academics and diplomats. Many of those inmates have been tortured and abused. Thousands of people are imprisoned within its walls, including at one point Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi, and Post journalist Jason Rezaian, who was held there for almost a year and a half.

Military strikes on prisons can raise humanitarian and legal concerns, in part because of the vulnerability of inmates. The Washington-based organization Human Rights Activists in Iran said two prisoners were killed, which The Post could not independently confirm. Iranian officials have said that an unspecified number of prisoners were killed.

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The Post’s analysis of high-resolution imagery taken by Maxar Technologies on Monday identified at least 17 damaged or destroyed buildings across the prison grounds. The scattered locations likely indicate multiple strikes, experts in satellite imagery analysis said. The IDF declined to comment on The Post’s findings or answer questions about its intended targets.

“Based on the locations [of the damage], it appears there must have been at least four separate munitions, as nothing that was hit would seem volatile enough to cause damage to spread elsewhere,” said Sean O’Connor, an imagery analyst at the defense intelligence firm Janes.

William Goodhind, a geospatial analyst at Contested Ground, a research project that uses satellite imagery to track armed conflict, said the images indicate at least six strikes. Based on the damage locations, he said the strike appeared aimed at two outcomes: to target at access points, such as the gates on the north and south sides of the complex, and to kill prison staff who would have been in the central buildings. He noted that it looked like a “lower yield munition was used [rather] than larger-scale airstrikes where the intent is to level the building.”

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More than 60 acres of vegetation surrounding the prison were scorched in fires in the aftermath of the attack, the satellite images show. Some of the structural damage may been inflicted by the fires.

In the center of the prison, a building that contains administrative offices was destroyed and a medical center was heavily damaged, the images show. Videos posted to social media, including ones shared by the Iranian government, show burned-out cars and tangled metal. An exterior wall on the medical center is blackened and bars on its windows are crumpled. Inside, medical equipment and beds are covered in shattered glass.

Video released by Iran’s Prisons Organization shows damage to the medical center at Evin Prison in Tehran. (Video: Prisons Organization of Iran)

A doctor who worked at the medical center was also killed, as well as a prison social worker and her 5-year-old son, according to death notices reviewed by The Post.

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The attack appears to have also damaged another building across a courtyard from the medical center, which two former prisoners said was the solitary confinement block of Ward 209. The ward is run by the Ministry of Intelligence and often houses political and high-value detainees who are typically blindfolded while they are moved through the facility.

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One inmate who spoke to a friend by phone said he saw blindfolded prisoners walking around immediately after the strike with no guards in sight, the friend told The Post.

Satellite images and videos show extensive damage to the visitor gate at the northern edge of the complex where, according to the former prisoners and a family member of a detainee, Iranians come to visit detained relatives. The attack happened during established visiting hours, they said.

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A man who said he arrived at the gate shortly after the explosions described seeing burned cars and prisoners attempting to escape while guards shot at their feet.

“I saw many dead bodies lying on the ground,” he said. “No one had come yet to cover them or to confirm if they were dead.”

The man said he carried the bodies of five people who appeared to be dead and pulled others out of the rubble. The image that stays with him, he said, was one of a father and a daughter who had brought a document for the release of a family member.

“For about two hours, her father was trying CPR,” he said. “Nothing happened, and she died.”

The strike near the visitor gate shattered the windows of apartment buildings nearby and killed 61-year-old Mehrangiz Imanpour as she walked in the area, a family member said.

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The apartment building’s CCTV showed that Imanpour left her home around 11 a.m., less than one hour before the strike on the prison. She had gone to pay someone who had done work in her home, her family said. Two days later, authorities told the family her body had been found in a street near the visitor gate.

Video from near Imanpour’s apartment shortly after the strike shows the street covered in earth and dust, and damaged vehicles lining the road. In the distance, the visitor gate is destroyed. A building facade is shattered.

Videos from witnesses and officials catalogue the damage to Evin Prison in Tehran. (Video: Mamlekate/Prisons Organization of Iran)

Imanpour’s family member said she was kind and self-made, a gifted artist and painter. “If you were to describe her, there aren’t enough positive things to say about Mehrangiz,” the person said.

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Large swaths of Evin are not functional, and family members of two prisoners told The Post that some inmates have been moved to facilities where crowding is rampant and conditions are grim.

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“They locked everyone up in a large hall that can hold a maximum of 30 or 40 people, but now they are keeping more than 120 people there,” said a family member of a male prisoner who was relocated to the Greater Tehran Penitentiary.

Women prisoners remained in Evin the night of the strike before being moved to Qarchak Prison, according to a former Evin prisoner who has spoken with women detainees and a report by Human Rights Activists in Iran.

“[Women prisoners] cleaned the place themselves. There were guards everywhere, pointing guns at their heads, and no water, no gas, no telephone access,” the person said. “Families were very worried.”

Qarchak has been denounced by human rights organizations for its pest infestation, contaminated water and lack of basic social services.

“In this situation, [prisoners] are the most vulnerable,” the former prisoner who ran toward the entrance said. “Who knows what is going to happen next.”

The questions hanging over the Middle East as dust settles on 12-day war

Following the 12-day war between Israel and Iran, a number of unanswered questions hang over the Middle East.

How they’re answered could define the future of the region.

From peace in Gaza, which so far seems out of reach, to Iran’s uranium and the spectre of further US intervention.

Here are four key questions to keep an eye on moving forward:

Peace in Gaza?

Since 7 October 2023, the war between Israel and Hamas has raged in the enclave.

The initial attack claimed around 1,200 Israeli lives and saw around 250 taken hostage – with around 50 still imprisoned.

In Gaza, more than 56,000 people have been killed, with disagreements over how many of these are militants and how many are innocents.

Earlier this year, a temporary peace was achieved in Gaza.

It led to the return of a number of hostages and the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

However, Israel broke the ceasefire, launching attacks on Gaza and then implementing a blockade of all aid going in.

The disagreement centred around how best to proceed with the ceasefire.

Israel wanted to speed up the release of hostages during phase one of the then-ceasefire.

Hamas wanted to move on to phase two and negotiate a permanent end to the war.

Now, Hamas has said it is willing to free the remaining hostages in Gaza under any deal to end the war permanently.

Israel has said the war can only end if Hamas is disarmed and dismantled.

Hamas refuses to lay down its arms.

In short, the two remain, and long have been, at loggerheads with neither willing to bend or change their position.

The spectre of US intervention

One of the latest major developments in the Middle East has been the US decision to strike Iran.

Donald Trump’s team were quick to stress this was simply a one-off attack and would not lead to another dreaded “forever war”.

But they went on the offensive, criticising journalists over alleged “fake news”.

Despite this, when asked, Trump said he would strike Iran again if necessary.

The fact that the US is now willing to go as far as to attack Iran openly has raised serious questions about how things might play out.

Will Washington go further in hitting Tehran or will Trump stick to his word?

And could the US be pressured into striking anywhere else in the Middle East in support of its ally Israel?

Where’s Iran’s uranium?

Following the strikes, there were various claims and counterclaims over the efficacy of the US attack.

While some voices from Washington described Tehran’s nuclear facilities as “obliterated,” we heard from the nuclear watchdog chief who said Iran could be enriching uranium in a matter of months.

Most of Iran’s highly enriched uranium was thought to be at Isfahan – which was hit by US Tomahawk missiles in the attack.

Reports have suggested Iran has around 400kg of highly enriched uranium.

It isn’t known if this is buried beneath the rubble in Isfahan, or if it was moved elsewhere ahead of the strikes.

Israel initiated the 12-day war over fears of Tehran getting a nuclear bomb – something it denies.

The fate of the uranium could decide whether the two nations end up fighting further, or not.

Gaza aid

In recent months, Israel supplanted the UN as the central aid provider with a US-backed group called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

The group has since come under criticism, but defended its conduct in a warzone.

Watch the aid boss hit out at ‘disinformation’ in the video below

At its aid distribution points, there have been a number of incidents in which Palestinians have been shot and killed.

This is allegedly by Israeli fire.

The Hamas-run health ministry has said hundreds have been killed in such incidents.

Watch a report on one such incident below

The humanitarian situation in the enclave became dire as well, under the prolonged Israeli aid blockade.

Today, the GHF said it had delivered 50 million meals, but it isn’t clear whether this is enough, and whether much-needed aid will get into the enclave to those who need it most.

And will GHF remain in place, or will the UN be restored to its position?

The answer to these questions could be key to the lives and wellbeing of countless Palestinians.