On June 23, Israel bombed an Iranian prison which held as many as 100 trans inmates, who are now missing and presumed dead. The airstrike occurred a day before the ceasefire between the two nations began, putting an end to the 12-day war.

Four areas of Tehran’s Evin Prison are said to have been damaged in the attack, including a section for trans inmates, which human rights lawyer Reza Shafakhah said was flattened. 79 people throughout the building have been confirmed dead, with the number expected to rise. Among the deceased are visiting family members, social workers, physicians, nurses, teenage soldiers, a five-year-old child, administrative staff, the chief prosecutor and one of his deputies.

During a press conference on June 24, UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan said that targeting a prison “constitutes a grave breach of international humanitarian law.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu already has an arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court for committing war crimes in Gaza, where over 57,600 Palestinians have been killed by the IDF since October 2023.

Evin Prison is known as a symbol of the Iranian regime’s oppression, holding political prisoners under inhumane conditions and subjecting them to torture and even execution. LGBTQ+ people are at high risk of persecution, with arrests occurring for “offending public decency” and wearing clothes that do not align with one’s sex assigned at birth, among other things.

According to Peace Mark magazine, a former trans inmate described the conditions of the prison, saying, “When you go to the transgender ward, you can’t even see the sunlight… During my detention, except for the two times I was transferred to the infirmary with begging and pleading, I hadn’t seen the sunlight.”

Israel’s attack on the prison, including the section that housed trans inmates, has renewed criticism of the country’s pinkwashing efforts, as it attempts to justify its military actions as “symbolic” and a form of liberation.