Israel: personal archive of spy chief leaked on social media

An anonymous Telegram social media channel published a video on Wednesday containing the personal archive of the head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, David Barnea, local media have reported. The video included personal photographs and documents belonging to Barnea.

“We have got a small gift for the Mossad; ‘With LOVE for David’. Happy Purim,” wrote Open Hands, the tag on the otherwise anonymous channel. The Jewish holiday of Purim started last night.

According to the Times of Israel, the channel was created on Tuesday and claimed that the information it had obtained was from a lengthy intelligence operation conducted against Barnea, which began in 2014. More material would be released soon, it warned.

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Israeli media accused Iran of being behind the leak. Hebrew-language media named Nour News specifically for publishing it.

Barnea did not make any comment, but the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said that Barnea’s phone was not hacked and the “materials in question are old.”

Meanwhile, the Times of Israel reported that Israeli government websites were down on Monday evening for over an hour due to a major cyberattack. Media reports also linked this to Iran.