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Ayatollah ‘hardliner’ claims Iran did indeed hack Netanyahu family phones

Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence agency and Iran’s Foreign Ministry had denied that the phones of the Israeli prime minister’s wife and son had been breached. 

By David Jablinowitz, World Israel News 

A conservative Iranian ayatollah has claimed Iran has hacked cellphones belonging to members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ’s family, according to a report on Radio Farda.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry has denied reports it hacked the cellphones of Israeli politicians, according to the U.S-funded Persian-language broadcaster.

However, Ahmad Alamolhoda, the custodian of the holy shrine in Mashhad and a close ally of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, is quoted as saying on Friday that “in the past few days, Iran’s cyberattacks have resulted in hacking the mobile telephone of a candidate in Israeli elections and access to all the information.”

Referring to media reports, he then added that Iran had hacked the telephones of Netanyahu family members.

The news about the prime minister’s family first emerged on a new Saudi based news website, Independent Arabic. It said that the family members involved were the prime minister’s wife Sara and his son Yair. Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence agency denied the report.

Israel’s Channel 12 TV reported recently that the mobile phone of Benny Gantz, Netanyahu’s leading challenger in the April Knesset election, had been hacked by Iran.

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Netanyahu denied that he played a role in publicizing the Gantz hacking story, saying that the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal intelligence agency, has confirmed his lack of involvement.

The prime minister challenged Gantz last week at a news conference to supply answers in relations to the reported Iranian hack.

“Benny Gantz what are you hiding from the Israeli public? What do the Iranians know about you that you are not telling us? What classified information do the Iranians have on you that you are not revealing even to your fellow party members?” Netanyahu asked.