The former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, a candidate to succeed Benjamin Netanyahu in the upcoming elections on Wednesday, acknowledged that his account on "Telegram" was subjected to a cyber attack, after hackers announced that they had breached his phone.
Bennett stated in a press release that "the issue is being addressed by the security agency... and upon further investigations, it turned out that my phone was not compromised, but my account on Telegram was accessed in various ways."
Bennett, who served as the Prime Minister from June 2021 to June 2022, added "contents of my log, multiple images, and conversations were published."
On Wednesday, correspondences, video recordings, and images said to be taken from Bennett's phone were published on an account belonging to hackers under the name "Hanzala".
The Israeli left-leaning newspaper "Haaretz" conducted investigations that showed many of the phone numbers are real and belong to high-ranking officials in Israel and abroad from the security agency and foreign leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron.
The cyber hackers claimed they targeted Bennett in a cyber attack named "Operation Octopus". They wrote in a post on their account on X "Dear Naftali Bennett, you proudly stated that you are a role model in cybersecurity, showcasing your skills to the entire world... and what an irony that your personal iPhone 13 fell so easily into the hands of Hanzala."
The Iranian news agency IRNA published names of contacts obtained from Bennett's account on Telegram, without stating whether the hackers are linked to the Islamic Republic, as reported in the Israeli media.
Naftali Bennett, a prominent figure in the Israeli right-wing sphere, barred Benjamin Netanyahu from the premiership in June 2021 by forming a broad coalition that included an Arab party for the first time in the history of Israel.
Polls indicate that Naftali Bennett, who announced his retirement from politics in 2022, is the most likely candidate to defeat Netanyahu in the expected legislative elections in 2026.
