The cell phones of six members of Palestinian human rights NGOs were hacked with Pegasus military-grade spyware developed by the Israeli firm NSO, Irish human rights group Front Line Defenders revealed on Monday.
In its report, the group said that the hacked NGOs were Addameer; Al-Haq; Defence for Children – Palestine; the Union of Agricultural Work Committees; the Bisan Centre for Research and Development; and theUnion of Palestinian Women Committees. Remarkably, all of these groups were designated as "terrorist organisations" by Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz on 19 October 2021.
The Front Line Defenders group suggests that such a designation could have been made as a pretext to hack the phones belonging to members of the NGOs.
The report says that the earliest detected intrusion happened in July 2020 and continued through April 2021. In total, 75 cell phones used by pro-Palestinian activists were hacked, the group concluded. This information was confirmed by Amnesty International's Security Lab and Citizens Lab, as both groups have experience in identifying and exposing cases when Pegasus was used.
This is not the first time that Pegasus spyware has made headlines. Earlier this year, the US administration cited evidence that NSO had provided its software to "foreign governments" that used it to "target government officials, journalists, businesspeople, artists, activists, academics, and embassy workers.” A large-scale media investigation revealed in July that French President Emmanuel Macron's phone was among 50,000 other possible Pegasus targets.
The company refuted the allegations, stressing that it has always made every effort to prevent its spyware from being misused.