Grapevine

‘Get away from Hezbollah’: Has Israel hacked Lebanon’s telecoms networks?

Israel sends text messages and recordings to scores of people and hacks radio networks. Experts say it has quietly been gathering this data on Lebanon’s citizens for years.

Israeli military officials have warned residents in southern Lebanon and parts of Beirut to evacuate villages and neighbourhoods, sparking worries of a bombing campaign exploding into a full-blown war — and that Israel had hacked into its northern neighbour’s telecommunications networks.

The bombing began within hours of Monday’s warnings, and more than 270 people have been killed in attacks across Lebanon’s south and east.

And later in the evening, Israel announced that it had also bombed parts of Beirut.

As fears of a war escalate, the warnings, experts say, are in themselves also a reminder of Israel’s technological superiority over Lebanon. They also repeat a playbook that Israel has used in Gaza.