"For me, hell was not the moment Israel attacked; hell was the moment they
wouldn't open the door [of the cell] for us," Motahareh Goonei recalls in an
exclusive interview with the BBC. A political activist, Goonei was in solitary
confinement in Iran's notorious Evin Prison when it was hit in a targeted attack
by Israel on 23 June. Satellite imagery, witness accounts and verified footage
obtained by BBC News Persian reveal new details of the attack in the closing
hours of the Israel-Iran war and of those who died. The high-security complex,
perched on the northern edge of Tehran, has held thousands of political
prisoners over the past half-century. On that day in June, the prison became the
site of the deadliest Israeli strike on Iranian soil in terms of civilian
casualties. Iranian authorities say 80 people were killed - among them prison
staff, inmates, medical workers, visitors and residents of nearby
neighbourhoods. In a report published on 14 August, Human Rights Watch said that
Israeli air strikes on the prison were unlawfully indiscriminate and amounted to
an apparent war crime. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the reason for the
attack was that the facility was being "used for intelligence operations against
Israel".
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