TEHRAN / TEL AVIV: Israel and Iran continued their conflict on Monday with a fierce exchange of missile fire, involving Israeli strikes on central Tehran, which hit locations like the Evin Prison, while explosions were also reported in Karaj and Iran launched new barrages at Israeli cities.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the military was attacking targets in central Tehran with “unprecedented intensity,” and confirmed a strike on Evin Prison, which holds political detainees.

Iran’s Mizan news agency confirmed the Israeli attack on Evin, saying part of the prison was damaged but the situation was “under control.”

A technical building of Iran’s state broadcaster was also hit, the ILNA news agency reported.

France’s foreign minister called the strike on Evin, where two French citizens are held, “unacceptable.”

Israel’s military said it struck access routes to Iran’s underground Fordow nuclear site south of Tehran. This followed reports of a US attack on the Fordo facility a day earlier.

Iran’s Tasnim news agency, quoted a Qom province official, said, “The aggressor attacked the Fordow nuclear site again.”

The Israeli military said about 20 jets struck military targets in western Iran and Tehran overnight, hitting missile and radar infrastructure in Kermanshah and a surface-to-air missile launcher in the capital.

Earlier on Monday, the IDF said its drones destroyed 15 Iranian fighter jets and helicopters in coordinated strikes on six Iranian airports.

Explosions were also reported in Karaj on Monday; the International Atomic Energy Agency said last week that previous Israeli strikes there had destroyed two buildings used for centrifuge component manufacturing.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) retaliated, saying its latest attack used “combined missile and drone operations using solid and liquid fuel missiles and utilising special tactics to penetrate the layers of the Israeli air defence shield,” Tasnim reported.

The IRGC claimed rocket strikes in Safad, Tel Aviv, Ashkelon, Ashdod and Beisan, using Kheyber-Shakan, Emad, Qadr, and Fattah-1 missiles, as sirens blared across multiple Israeli cities.

Iran also reported shooting down an Israeli Hermes drone.

An Israeli airstrike reportedly killed three people in an ambulance in central Iran on Sunday. Israeli authorities said 24 civilians have been killed by Iranian missiles.

Tensions have surged since an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities on June 13, which prompted Iran’s sustained retaliatory missile campaign.

Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2025