TEHRAN, June 23: Israel launched a powerful airstrike on Evin Prison in northern Tehran on Monday, marking what it described as its most intense assault on the Iranian capital to date, just one day after the United States officially entered the conflict. Evin Prison, long considered a symbol of Iran’s political power structure, has historically housed political prisoners, opposition figures, and foreign detainees since the 1979 revolution.

In response, Iran reiterated earlier threats to retaliate against the U.S., but more than 24 hours after American bombers dropped 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs on Iranian underground nuclear facilities, no significant counterattack had materialized. U.S. President Donald Trump further escalated tensions by publicly speculating about regime change in Iran.

Despite the rising hostilities, oil prices remained largely stable on the first trading day after the U.S. joined the war, indicating that global markets were skeptical Iran would disrupt Gulf oil supplies as it had threatened.

Footage aired by Iran’s state-run IRIB network showed rescue workers searching through the flattened ruins of Evin Prison, with scenes of injured individuals being carried out on stretchers. The judiciary’s Mizan news agency reported that emergency measures were underway to ensure the health and safety of the remaining inmates.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar shared a video on X (formerly Twitter) showing a fiery explosion at a building marked as the prison entrance, captioned with the phrase “Viva la libertad!” (Long live freedom). While Reuters was unable to independently verify that specific clip, other verified footage confirmed the aftermath of the attack.

In addition to the strike on Evin, the Israeli military confirmed it had targeted several command centers of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, which oversee internal security operations around Tehran. Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant declared, “The IDF is now hitting regime targets and instruments of state repression in central Tehran with unprecedented force.”

Iranian media offered conflicting accounts of the full extent of damage across Tehran—a city of 10 million that has seen waves of residents fleeing after 10 straight days of aerial bombardments.