Israel announced it was setting up a state commission of inquiry on Monday after a newspaper reported illicit use by police of powerful spyware against confidants of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a slew of other public figures.
Pegasus, a cellphone hacking tool made by Israel's NSO Group, was used to "phish for intelligence even before any investigation had been opened against the targets, and without judicial warrants", Calcalist daily said in an unsourced report.
Those targets included a son of and two aides to Netanyahu - who is on trial on corruption charges - as well as a co-defendant and several witnesses, and, separately, two former officials suspected in leaks to journalists, Calcalist said.
Lawyers for Netanyahu - who denies wrongdoing - urged that proceedings against him be suspended. But a court spokesman said he did not know if any such request had been filed with the judges, who were conducting the trial on Monday as scheduled.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who unseated Netanyahu in June, deemed Calcalist's findings "very serious, if true".
"This tool (Pegasus) and similar tools are important tools in the fight against terrorism and severe crime, but they were not intended to be used in phishing campaigns targeting the Israeli public or officials, which is why we need to understand exactly what happened," he said in a written statement.
His internal security minister, Omer Barlev, said he was setting up a state commission of inquiry. "There won't be such failings on my watch," Barlev tweeted, remarks that cast Calcalist's findings as predating the current government.
Police have been conducting internal probes, and answering questions before parliamentary oversight panels, since Calcalist last month reported that its investigators had used Pegasus against Israeli citizens - sometimes without warrants.
That report generated domestic furore over Pegasus, whose alleged misuse by foreign clients had prompted the Bennett government to order export reviews.
NSO says all its sales are government-authorised and that it does not itself run Pegasus.
President Isaac Herzog also voiced concern. "We must not lose our democracy. We must not lose our police. And we must certainly not lose public trust in them. This necessitates a very deep and thorough investigation," he said in a speech.
Source: Reuters
