Anti-Israel activists claimed that they had published the personal information of high-ranking Israeli officials on a Persian-language Telegram channel over the past month.
The group, known as Justice for Palestine, began publishing the information of a number of officials from the Mossad, IDF and Shin Bet, in mid-October, including phone numbers, addresses, ID numbers and photos.
The charter of the group stated that it is an “international popular network of freedmen, gentlemen and supporters of justice and the oppressed and homeless in the world.” The group added that it is focused on “fighting oppression and oppressors,” and would do so by identifying and revealing the identities of officials they see as oppressors.
The group also aims to bring the information they gather to human rights groups around the world to try and prosecute these officials in international courts.
“The oppressed nation of Palestine is now the largest group of people in the world who, as a nation with an identity of more than 73 years, have been systematically oppressed by the racist government of the usurping Zionist regime, therefore, in the first phase, this group is trying to fight the perpetrators of this indisputable oppression,” said the group in its charter. It is unclear if the group meant that it intends to expand to targeting other states.
On October 17, the Justice for Palestine group referred to the leak of Shin Bet head Ronen Bar’s identity and personal information before his name was revealed by Israeli authorities, saying that it would leak even more info.
The info leaked about Bar included ID numbers, birth dates and photos of his family, his home address and phone number.
The group also leaked similar information about current Mossad head David Barnea, former Mossad head Yossi Cohen, IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi, the head of the IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate Aharon Haliva and Israel Air Force Commander Amikam Norkin.
It is unclear how the information was obtained and if all the information released by the group is accurate. A search on a reverse phone number lookup app showed that some of the phone numbers released matched the names they allegedly belonged to.
It is also unclear if the group is entirely Iranian, although messages in the group are published in Persian. A report on the group was published by the Fars News Agency on Monday.
Last month, a hacker group called Moses Staff claimed that it had successfully conducted a cyberattack on the Israeli Defense Ministry, releasing files and photos it claims it obtained from the ministry’s servers.
Moses Staff claimed in the announcement to have access to confidential documents, including reports, operational maps, information about soldiers and units, and letters and correspondence. “We are going to publish this information to aware [sic] all the world about the Israeli authorities’ crimes,” warned the group.
The files leaked included photos of Gantz and IDF soldiers and a 2010 letter from Gantz to the deputy chief of the joint chiefs of staff and chief of intelligence in the Jordanian Armed Forces. The leaked files also included Excel files allegedly containing the names, ID numbers, emails, addresses, phone numbers and even socioeconomic status of soldiers, mechina pre-military students and individuals connected to the Defense Ministry.