Israel accuses Hezbollah of trying to hack U.N. Lebanon peacekeepers

Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz attends his celebration’s assembly on the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, June 27, 2022. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

JERUSALEM, June 29 (Reuters) – Israel accused the Iranian-backed Lebanese militia Hezbollah on Wednesday of conducting a cyber operation designed to disrupt a U.N. peacekeeping mission on the border between the nations, and threatened harsh Israeli retaliation towards enemy hackers.

The allegation – to which there was no quick response from Beirut, Tehran or the United Nations Interim Pressure in Lebanon (UNIFIL) – got here as Israeli-Iranian tensions soar.

In what he termed a primary public disclosure of the incident, Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz mentioned “Iranian safety establishments in cooperation with Hezbollah (lately) launched a cyber operation with the intention of stealing supplies about UNIFIL actions and deployment within the space, for Hezbollah’s use”.

“That is yet one more direct assault by Iran and Hezbollah on Lebanese residents and on Lebanon’s stability,” he advised a cyber convention at Tel Aviv College, with out elaborating.

Established in 1978, UNIFIL patrols Lebanon’s southern border. It’s charged with monitoring the ceasefire that ended the final warfare between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006.

Israel has accused Hezbollah gunmen of organising clandestine positions on the border in defiance of UNIFIL. Lebanese officers say Israel continues air drive overflights of their territory in violation of the ceasefire.

Gantz mentioned an Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps cyber unit known as “Shahid Kaveh” had “carried out analysis to wreck ships, gasoline stations and industrial vegetation in a number of Western nations together with Britain, the U.S., France and Israel”.

Britain’s Sky Information reported related allegations final yr, saying the Iranian embassy in London had not responded to them.

Gantz hinted that Israel – which is extensively believed to have waged cyber warfare towards Iran’s nuclear services and different infrastructure – might retaliate bodily towards enemy hackers.

“We all know who they’re, we goal them and people who direct them. They’re in our sights as we converse – and never simply within the cyber-space,” he mentioned. “There may be a wide range of doable responses to cyber-attacks – in and out of doors of the cyber-domain.”

Writing by Dan Williams; Enhancing by Nick Macfie

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