Shin Bet denies Iranians hacked phones of Netanyahu’s wife and son

Claims of a hacking attack on the cellphones of Sara and Yair Netanyahu follow an earlier report of a breach of the phone of Netanyahu challenger Benny Gantz. 

By World Israel News Staff

Israel’s internal security agency, the Shin Bet, is denying a report that Iranian hackers successfully breached the private cellphones of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s son Yair and wife Sara.

The report was published by Independentarabia, a joint media outlet of the publisher of the British Independent newspaper and Saudi Research and Marketing Group.

The report claims that the breach was carried out a number of months ago. There was no indication of what contents were exposed as a result of the hack.

However, the Prime Minister’s Office said that they had checked with security officials about the reported hack and were told that “it never happened.”

The Independentarabia article refers to an Israeli TV report last week that said that the Iranians had hacked the cellphone of the prime minister’s main challenger in the April Knesset election, Benny Gantz.

However, the British-Saudi outlet says that the hacking attack against Gantz had taken place a number of years ago and was made public now to time with the election campaign.

The Blue and White party has accused Netanyahu and his Likud party of releasing the story about the supposed Iranian breach of Gantz’s phone to embarrass him before the election.

However, the Prime Minister’s Office said that the Shin Bet confirmed that Netanyahu had nothing to do with the report.