Israel: Hezbollah and Iran hacked UN mission
Israel has accused Lebanon's Hezbollah and Iran of carrying out cyberattacks against the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, which Israel says were aimed at disrupting the peacekeeping mission on the Lebanese-Israeli border.
On Wednesday, June 29, Israel accused Iran-backed militias in Lebanon (Hezbollah) of attempting to hack UN peacekeeping forces stationed in the country, and threatened these forces with severe retaliation.
The allegations come as tensions between Israel and Iran have sharply increased. There has been no immediate response from Iran or Lebanon's Hezbollah.
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz, in what Israeli media called the “first public disclosure” of the operation, said that Iranian security agencies, in cooperation with Lebanon’s Hezbollah, had recently carried out cyber operations against UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping force stationed in Lebanon.
According to him, this operation was carried out with the aim of stealing content related to UNIFIL activities and the deployment of its forces for Hezbollah's use in the region.
The Israeli Defense Minister further stated that a cyber branch of the Revolutionary Guards called "Martyr Kaveh" has organized an investigative operation aimed at "damaging ships, gas stations, and industrial plants" in some Western countries such as Britain, the United States, France, and Israel.
The Israeli Defense Minister, without giving details of the incident, stated that this operation was another attack by Iran and Hezbollah on Lebanese citizens and the stability of the country.
UNIFIL said it was the first time it had been informed of the operation. The UN’s public relations office said in a statement that UNIFIL and the UN take cybersecurity “very seriously” and have “strong measures” in place. The UN said it had not received any direct information about the attack.
UNIFIL, established in 1978, patrols Lebanon's southern borders and is tasked with monitoring the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah.
Israel has consistently accused Hezbollah of establishing covert positions against the ceasefire, while Lebanese officials have accused Israel of violating its airspace, a behavior that contradicts the ceasefire between the two countries.
In this context, the British Sky News network made similar accusations against the Islamic Republic of Iran last year, but the Iranian Embassy in Britain did not respond to these accusations.
Source: DW
