A UNIFIL vehicle near the border with Israel on Jan. 19, 2015. (Credit: Mahmoud Zayyat/AFP)
JERUSALEM — Israel accused the Iranian-backed Hezbollah on Wednesday of conducting a cyber operation designed to disrupt a U.N. peacekeeping mission on the border between the countries, and threatened harsh retaliation against the alleged hackers.
The allegation — to which there was no immediate response from Beirut or Tehran — came as Israeli-Iranian tensions soar.
Reached by L'Orient-Le Jour, the UNIFIL press office said it has received "no direct information on the alleged incident."
"UNIFIL and the United Nations take cybersecurity very seriously and have strong measures in place to protect our data," said the spokesperson for UNIFIL, Kandice Ardiel. "We are aware of media reports of the Israeli defense minister's statements today, but have not received any direct information about the alleged incident," she continued.
In what he termed a first public disclosure of the incident, Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz said "Iranian security institutions in cooperation with Hezbollah [recently] launched a cyber operation with the aim of stealing materials about UNIFIL activities and deployment in the area, for Hezbollah's use."
"This is yet another direct attack by Iran and Hezbollah on Lebanese citizens and on Lebanon's stability," he told a cyber conference at Tel Aviv University, without elaborating.
Established in 1978, UNIFIL patrols Lebanon's southern border. It is charged with monitoring the ceasefire that ended the last war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006.
Israel has accused Hezbollah gunmen of setting up clandestine positions at the border in defiance of UNIFIL. Lebanese officials say Israel continues air force overflights of their territory in violation of the ceasefire.
Gantz said an Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps cyber unit called "Shahid Kaveh" had "conducted research to damage ships, gas stations and industrial plants in several Western countries including Britain, the U.S., France and Israel".
Britain's Sky News reported similar allegations last year, saying the Iranian embassy in London had not responded to them.
Gantz hinted that Israel — which is widely believed to have waged cyber war against Iran's nuclear facilities and other infrastructure — may retaliate physically against enemy hackers.
"We know who they are, we target them and those who direct them. They are in our sights as we speak - and not just in the cyber-space," he said. "There is a variety of possible responses to cyber-attacks — in and outside of the cyber domain."