Israel on Monday bombed the gates of Iran’s notorious Evin Prison, where the regime holds and tortures dissidents, and conducted follow-up strikes near the Fordow nuclear facility a day after it was bombed by the U.S.

Evin has been a symbol of the regime’s oppression for decades. The Tehran prison is where the regime has incarcerated activists, protesters, journalists, dual nationals and others, and used torture methods including beatings, solitary confinement and sexual abuse. Iran expert Ben Sabti told Jewish Insider last week that Iranians have called on Israel to strike prisons so that dissident leaders held inside could escape and push for the toppling of the regime. 

The strike on the prison was one of several by Israeli fighter jets, targeting “bodies of government oppression in the heart of Tehran,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Monday morning. The military struck the headquarters of the Basij, the regime’s internal enforcement arm, which has been instrumental in enforcing Islamic law and suppressing protest; the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ internal security command center; the Alborz Corps, responsible for security and regime stability in the Tehran district; and a clock in the city’s Palestine Square counting down to Israel’s destruction by 2040.

“These command centers have significant military effect and additionally they impact the regime’s ability to impose control. Striking these military targets harms the Iranian regime’s military capabilities,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Office stated.

Israel also conducted follow-up strikes on the access routes to the Fordow nuclear facility on Monday, the IDF confirmed. The strikes came a day after the U.S. struck the complex, which is under a mountain, with bunker-buster bombs.

The full extent of the damage done to the site, as well as facilities in Natanz and Isfahan, remained unclear after the strike by U.S. bombers early Sunday morning.

President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the U.S. did “monumental” damage to Iran’s nuclear facilities – “Obliteration is an accurate term!” he wrote on his Truth Social site — amid reports that the sites had been severely damaged but not destroyed. 

Former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen told Israel’s Channel 12 News on Sunday that “to the best of my knowledge,” the U.S. strikes “succeeded in fully stopping the Iranian nuclear project, certainly at this point.” 

International Atomic Energy Agency Secretary-General Rafael Grossi said that the bombing likely caused “very significant damage” to Fordow but that “no one — including the IAEA — is in a position to have fully assessed the underground damage.” 

An Israeli government source told JI that the full extent of the damage was still being assessed as of Monday morning, but that Natanz and most of Iran’s estimated 400 kg of highly enriched uranium held at Isfahan were destroyed, and little of the uranium was moved to other locations before the strike. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel was very close to reaching the main goal of its operation in Iran: rolling back the nuclear and ballistic missile threats to Israel.

“When we reach our goals in Iran, the war will end,” he said in a press conference on Sunday. “We will not be dragged into a war of attrition.”

An Israeli official told Ynet that “if Khamenei stops shooting and says he wants to end the event, we will accept it … We want to end the event soon, this week, but whether it happens depends on Khamenei. If he shoots nonstop, we will have to respond.” 

The IDF told JI on Monday that about 50% of Iran’s missile launchers have been destroyed.

Yossi Mansharov, an Iran expert at the Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy, explained that it’s more important “to focus on the launchers that Iran retains, because without launchers, the missiles are useless.”

“This is a historic achievement for Israel, which will require Iran to check its defenses after the war,” Mansharov added. “The regime was caught unprepared for a war when it comes to defense and that has been very costly, as you can see from Israel’s extraordinary achievements.”

Still, Mansharov added, “Israel will also have to do an extensive examination to understand how it can improve its interceptions of deadly missiles.” (The writer is a senior fellow at the Misgav Institute.)

Iran hit an electrical facility in southern Israel with a ballistic missile on Monday morning. The Israel Electric Corporation said a “strategic infrastructure facility” was damaged near the city of Ashdod, causing power outages. 

The Islamic Republic launched some seven missiles on Monday morning, in four separate barrages, sending Israelis across the country into bomb shelters for over half an hour. Iran also shot one missile into Israel overnight, which was intercepted. No injuries were reported. 

As of Monday, Iran had shot about 500 missiles and 1,000 drones at Israel since the start of Operation Rising Lion this month, according to the Israeli government. 

The IDF continued its strikes on Iran overnight and on Monday morning, including on missile launchers in Kermanshah and Tehran, fighter jets and six military airports in western, eastern and central Iran, and the Parchin military base, where experiments related to nuclear weapons have been conducted.

IDF Spokesperson Brig.-Gen. Effie Defrin said in a press briefing on Monday that the Israeli strikes are conducted “with an emphasis on the [Islamic] Revolutionary Guard Corps command centers and all elements of the threat to Israel … Every base from which we identify [missile] launches is attacked and damaged.”

Iranian media reported that the Islamic Republic shot down an Israeli drone.

Trump spoke out in favor of changing the regime in Iran, even as senior officials in Washington and Israel have said that is not one of the goals of the operation.

“It’s not politically correct to use the term, ‘Regime Change,’ but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change???MIGA!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. 

Netanyahu would not rule out killing Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei when asked about it last week, and Defense Minister Israel Katz said Khamenei should remember “the fate of the dictator of the neighboring country,” Saddam Hussein.

Iran continued to threaten revenge on the U.S. for its recent strikes. A spokesperson for the Iranian military’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters warned in a video in English that “Mr. Trump, the gambler, you may start this war, but we will be the ones to end it … The fighters of Islam will respond to the crime with powerful and targeted attacks that will lead to unexpected consequences.”