The Israeli government has launched a series of attacks on Iranian governmental targets deep inside its capital of Tehran, including the notorious Evin Prison.

Evin Prison is known for holding political activists, journalists, dissidents and foreigners who are often used by Iran as bargaining chips in negotiations with the West.

Australian academic Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert, a Melbourne-based scholar of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, was held for two years in Evin prison – from 2018 until 2020.

Moore-Gilbert was sentenced to 10 years on espionage charges but was released after the Australian Government intervened with a prisoner swap.

Iranian state television aired black-and-white footage it said was shot inside Evin Prison after the strike, with prisoners under control. 

However, the Washington-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Centre for Human Rights in Iran said many families of detainees “have expressed deep concern about the safety and condition of their loved ones” in the prison.

Other sites targeted by Israel include the security headquarters of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guards, Palestine Square, and the paramilitary Basij volunteer corps, which is a part of the Revolutionary Guard.

The Israeli government made clear the strikes were a pointed attack aimed at the Iranian ruling apparatus.

“Viva la libertad!” Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar wrote on X, with his post showing footage of the Evin prison strike.

In a post on X, Moore-Gilbert wrote: “Every single person who has ever passed under these gates, or has been forced to stand outside them to film the regime’s propaganda, will be staring in disbelief at these scenes.”

France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said the Israeli strike on the prison had put two of its citizens in danger.

“The strike targeting Evin Prison in Tehran, put our citizens Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris, who have been held for three years, in danger. It is unacceptable,” Barrot wrote on X.

“All strikes must stop now to open the way for negotiations and diplomacy.”