Numerous Israelis reported receiving threatening text messages on Friday warning them they would be buried by next week, with police saying they were working with the National Cyber Directorate to track down the source of the messages and to block them.
The messages, which came as the country is anticipating attacks from Iran and its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah for the killings of top terror leaders, included recipients’ full names and city of residence, alarming many who received them.
Police said anyone who received the texts should ignore them and block the number if possible.
“These are fake messages made to induce panic during war,” a police statement added, noting that sending such messages constitutes a criminal offense punishable by imprisonment.
Israel has been bracing for an attack since the military assassinated Hezbollah’s top commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut late on July 30. Hours later Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of the Hamas terror group, was killed in a blast in Tehran, an attack for which Israel has neither claimed nor denied responsibility.
Get The Times of Israel’s Daily Edition
by email and never miss our top stories
By signing up, you agree to the terms
Iran and Hezbollah have vowed to retaliate for the assassinations, though recent reports have indicated Tehran may be rethinking a major attack.
הודעות מבהילות נשלחו לאזרחים עם שמם וכתובתם: "תיקבר עד השבוע הבא"https://t.co/wahVZ39xDV pic.twitter.com/hekLDUinAN
— ynet עדכוני (@ynetalerts) August 9, 2024
In late 2023, just weeks after Hamas’s October 7 attacks in southern Israel sparked the ongoing war in Gaza, authorities investigated a flood of WhatsApp calls coming from unknown numbers overseas that they believed were part of a phone-hacking attempt.
At the time, the National Cyber Directorate advised WhatsApp users to set their privacy settings to hush calls from unknown numbers, block and report the numbers making the calls, and avoid clicking on links sent from unknown sources.
Israel has seen an uptick in attempted cyber breaches since the war began.
In June, National Cyber Directorate chief Gaby Portnoy warned that the nature of cyber attacks by Iran since the outbreak of the war in Gaza had been more aggressive, not just against Israel, but also against its own allies.
pdcc