Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz discussed the uproar over the allegations surrounding Israeli cyber-surveillance company NSO Group during a visit to Paris on Wednesday.
Gantz met his French counterpart Florence Parly as well as DGSE head Bernard Emie and leaders of the French Jewish community, the Israeli Defence Ministry said in a statement.
"Minister Gantz addressed the topic of NSO and stated that Israel is taking the allegations seriously," the statement said.
"He noted that the State of Israel approves the export of cyber products exclusively to governmental entities, for lawful use and only for the purpose of preventing and investigating crime and counter terrorism."
The ministry said that Gantz informed Parly that "officials visited NSO’s office today and that Israel is investigating the allegations thoroughly."
During the visit Gantz also discussed the strategic defence relations between Israel and France, the crisis in Lebanon and the developing agreement with Iran.
The possible spying on the mobile phones of numerous heads of state and journalists with NSO's Pegasus software had caused an international stir.
Morocco's ambassador in Paris has denied media reports that a security service in his country had targeted French leader Emmanuel Macron for possible spying using Pegasus.
Macron had called an emergency meeting of the National Security and Defence Council to discuss consequences.
Pegasus uses security holes in smartphone software to gain widespread access to data. An international consortium of journalists had recently reported on a dataset of around 50,000 numbers allegedly selected by NSO customers as potential spying targets.
NSO has denied the allegations and disputed individual details from the reports.
Source: DPA
