Iran on Sunday claimed that an Israeli airstrike last week on Tehran’s notorious Evin prison killed at least 71 people, marking what was likely the deadliest single attacks in the recent war between the two countries.

The Iranian judiciary spokesperson, Asghar Jahangir, posted the casualty figures on the Mizan news agency’s website, noting that those killed included prison staff, soldiers, inmates, and visiting family members. Iranian authorities did not break down the numbers further or specify how many were wounded.

The Washington-based group Human Rights Activists in Iran said its reporting indicated at least 35 staff members and two inmates died, along with others outside the facility, including a woman who had come to speak with a judge about her husband’s case.

Jahangir said some of the injured were treated on site while others were taken to local hospitals, but no official count of the wounded was released.

The strike on June 23 targeted what Israeli officials described as “regime targets and government repression bodies in the heart of Tehran.” Evin prison has long been notorious for housing political prisoners, journalists, activists, and dissidents.

Among those killed in the attack was Iran’s top prosecutor, Ali Ghanaatkar, whose prosecution of prominent dissidents — including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi — had drawn international criticism.

The Evin prison strike came as part of a 12-day Israeli military campaign that Israel claims killed around 30 Iranian commanders and 11 nuclear scientists, while hitting eight nuclear facilities and more than 700 other military sites.

The status of Iran’s nuclear program remains uncertain. President Donald Trump has insisted that American airstrikes on June 22 “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear capacity, but Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), offered a more cautious assessment on Sunday.

Speaking on CBS’s Face the Nation, Grossi acknowledged “severe damage” to Iran’s program but said that its industrial and technological capacities largely remain. “Frankly speaking, one cannot claim that everything has disappeared,” Grossi said, warning that Tehran could restart uranium enrichment “in a matter of months” if it chose to do so.

Iran has so far refused to allow IAEA inspectors to assess the full scale of the damage.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)