Palestinian activists’ phones targeted by Israeli NSO spyware

Irish-based non-profit Frontline Defenders reported its findings in a joint technical report together with Amnesty International and the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab on Monday, independently confirming the results.

A number of Palestinian Foreign Ministry employees whose identities have not yet been revealed were also victim to being hacked with spyware, The New Arab’s Arabic-language service Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported.

Al-Haq Foundation revealed exclusively to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that it discovered on October 16 that one of its employees, field researcher Ghassan Halaika, had his device hacked by the Pegasus program.

This prompted the Al-Haq to investigate and communicate with other Palestinian institutions targeted by Israel, and to examine some of its employees’ smartphones, especially those who used an iPhone.

Ubai Aboudi, a 37-year-old economist and US citizen who runs the Bisan Center for Research and Development in Ramallah was found to be hacked, along with lawyer Salah Al-Hammoury, who holds French citizenship.

Aboudi accused Israel of “sticking the terrorist logo” on the groups after failing to persuade European governments and others to cut off financial support.

It’s not known precisely when or how the phones were breached, the security researchers said.

Four of the six hacked iPhones exclusively used SIM cards issued by Israeli telecom companies with Israeli +972 area code numbers, said the Citizen Lab and Amnesty researchers. That led them to question claims by NSO Group that exported versions of Pegasus cannot be used to hack Israeli phone numbers. NSO Group has also alleged it does not target US numbers.

Frontline Defenders considers Israel the main suspect behind the hacks. The first two intrusions were identified shortly after Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz declared the six Palestinian civil society groups as “terrorist” organisations.

The executive director of Frontline Defenders, Andrew Anderson, said the NSO Group cannot be trusted to ensure its spyware is not used illegally by its customers and says Israel should face international reproach if it does not bring the company to heel.

Pegasus spyware is notorious for being used against journalists, rights activists and political dissidents from Mexico to Saudi Arabia has been documented since 2015.