Chabad Rabbi Zvi Kogan is believed to have been killed in the UAE after his phone was hacked.
By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News
Iran is tracking of thousands of Israelis as potential targets, with several hundred considered at “high risk” and one already dead, Israel Hayom reported Wednesday.
Citing security sources, the paper said that the Iranians have been at it for over a decade, but that in recent years their efforts have skyrocketed due to their ability to hack into phone and personal computers to reveal massive amounts of personal information.
This includes home addresses, phone numbers, family details, social networks, places of work and other data that enables the mullahs’ intelligence agencies to know where people are going, when and with whom.
The report said that it “is believed” that the Iranian cell that murdered Chabad Rabbi Zvi Kogan in the UAE several days ago had access to his phone.
Most of the Iranian cyber effort is focused on obtaining information on targets inside Israel. Some of them, the report said, have already received direct threats in the form of “birthday greetings” that say they may not live to see their next birthday.
Israeli security has contacted all those considered at high risk, including senior defense officials, to warn them to be on alert as well as avoid traveling abroad.
The report said that “intelligence assessments project Iran will escalate” its efforts against such targets “imminently,” due to Tehran’s “mounting losses” in its direct and indirect conflict with Israel over the past year.
Iran’s most important proxy, Hezbollah, has had its military and political leadership decimated and most of its rocket threat dissipated by the IDF, forcing it into agreeing Tuesday to a ceasefire that includes a retreat well away from Israel’s northern border.
Meanwhile, Hamas has been reduced to mainly guerrilla tactics in the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip as the vast majority of its fighting force has been destroyed.
Iran itself has been left without meaningful air defense after the Israeli air force demolished it last month following two unsuccessful attempts to hit the Jewish state with hundreds of missiles.
The Islamic Republic has established terror cells in many countries over the years who could be activated against those Tehran considers of value, including Israeli academics and scientists as well as current and former government officials.
Several uncovered plots have been widely reported on, in places ranging from Western Europe to Turkey to Thailand, which came to naught thanks in large part to Israeli intelligence personnel working with their counterparts in these countries to arrest the criminals in time.
Several spy cells were recently caught in Israel itself, charged with taking pictures of sensitive facilities, carrying out surveillance operations on individuals, and even in a very few cases beginning to actively prepare to attack certain people.
The motivation in most cases seems to be money, although those arrested have also included Palestinians from eastern Jerusalem as well as Israeli Jews and Arabs.