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28-08-2025
TEHRAN: “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 neighborhoods.
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”.
‘No way out’
Describing the moment explosions ripped through the compound, Goonei said; “when I heard the third blast, I was certain there was no way out. I just pounded on the door with all my strength but it wouldn’t open. I thought ‘this is the end of your life, say goodbye’.”
Freed from her cell by another prisoner, Goonei stumbled into thick, choking smoke. She says that guards initially tried to block inmates from escaping, and some prison interrogators even threatened them.
Yet in scenes she described as “horrific but humanizing”, prisoners rushed to help injured guards, calming a panicked female officer and bandaging the wounds of a crying interrogator.
Other inmates from another ward rushed to help doctors and nurses trapped in the prison clinic.
Saeedeh Makarem, a doctor who was badly injured in the strike, later wrote on Instagram; “the very prisoners I once treated saved my life.”
Another woman held in Evin, speaking on condition of anonymity due to fears for her safety, has described the moment of the attack to the BBC.
“At first there were several explosions in quick succession, and the noise went on for about two minutes.
“We stayed on our beds at first because the windows had shattered, then we got dressed and all helped to bring the older women downstairs. No-one from the prison helped us, they shut the door on us and said we couldn’t go out.’
Scale of the attack
BBC analysis indicates Israel attacked Evin with at least six projectiles, damaging at least 28 buildings inside the complex.
The IDF says it had conducted a “targeted strike” on “a symbol of oppression against the Iranian people” and claimed that measures were taken to minimize harm to civilians but a relative of a political prisoner who arrived to visit just minutes after the blasts said “those coming out of the prison were saying there were bodies everywhere. Some prisoners had come out, none of them trying to escape, just stunned.” (BBC)
