Israel: Hezbollah and Iran Hacked UN Peacekeeping Mission
Israel has accused Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Iran of cyber attacks against the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Lebanon. According to Israel, these attacks were carried out to disrupt the mission of UN peacekeeping forces on the Lebanon-Israel border.
On Wednesday, June 29 (June 8), Israel accused Iran-backed militias in Lebanon (Hezbollah) of attempting to hack the UN peacekeeping forces stationed in the country and threatened these forces with severe consequences.
These accusations come as tensions between Israel and Iran have escalated significantly. Iran or Lebanon’s Hezbollah have not yet responded to these allegations.
Benny Gantz, Israel’s defense minister, in what Israeli media called “the first public disclosure” of these operations, stated that Iranian security agencies, in cooperation with Lebanon’s Hezbollah, recently conducted cyber operations against UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping forces stationed in Lebanon.
According to him, these operations were aimed at stealing content related to UNIFIL’s activities and deployment of its forces for use by Hezbollah in the region.
Israel’s defense minister further stated that a cyber branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps named “Shahid Kaveh” conducted a reconnaissance operation aimed at “damaging ships, gas stations, and industrial plants” in some Western countries such as Britain, the United States, France, and Israel.
Israel’s defense minister, without providing details about this incident, stated that this operation was another attack by Iran and Hezbollah on Lebanese citizens and the stability of the country.
UNIFIL announced that this is the first time it is learning about these operations. The organization’s public relations office stated regarding these attacks that UNIFIL and the United Nations take cyber security “very seriously” and have “implemented strong measures” in this field. The organization stated it has not received any direct information on this matter.
UNIFIL, which was established in 1978, patrols the southern borders of Lebanon and is tasked with monitoring the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
Israel has consistently accused Hezbollah of establishing covert positions against this ceasefire. In response, Lebanese officials have accused Israel of violating airspace along the country’s borders, behavior that contradicts the ceasefire between the two countries.
In this regard, British Sky News network raised similar accusations against the Islamic Republic of Iran last year, to which Iran’s embassy in Britain did not respond.
Source: DW
