Israeli police admits to 'unlawfully' using Pegasus spyware
After mounting accusations around the globe, the Israeli interior is finally pointing fingers at its own government for the unlawful abuse of Pegasus spyware.
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An NSO Group office in southern occupied Palestine (Reuters)
The Israeli occupation police force, following mounting accusations by rights groups of abusing powerful spyware, said Tuesday "anomalies" had been found in its electronic surveillance, meaning the legality of its information collection was in question.
The attorney general's office directed an investigation to be launched into the surveillance tactics used by the police on January 20, citing allegations about NSO Group's Pegasus spyware. At the time, the IOF claimed their wiretaps were conducted lawfully.
Further inquiries uncovered alleged "automatic technological anomalies," a senior police officer said, which led to the gathering of materials "over which there is a legal debate - whether they are covered by the world of secret monitoring."
The officer alluded to the Israeli 1979 Secret Monitoring Law, which empowers eavesdropping on "suspected criminals or terrorists," though Pegasus provided the occupation with access to previous communications on hacked phones.
Israeli media had previously said the occupation government had used Pegasus against anti-government protest leaders without the required court warrants.
The reports added augmented pressure against "Israel," giving it a new layer: it went from international denunciations and condemnations after it was discovered that "Tel Aviv" exported Pegasus spyware, which was used to spy on human rights activists, journalists, and politicians, to internal ones.
NSO's sales are subject to approval from the Israeli government, but it insists it had no involvement in the manner in which the system was used after it was sold.
The findings of the investigation will be submitted on July 1, and, for now, the occupation's police forces were ordered to institute "immediate measures to prevent possible straying from authorized powers."
The Israeli occupation is known for crossing boundaries and violating the human rights of Palestinians around the clock, and for that, it has used other spyware, such as Blue Wolf and White Wolf, among many others.
NSO's Pegasus even targeted those close to the Israeli occupation, such as the United States.
Read more: Israeli NSO Spyware Hacks US State Department Personnel
As part of the global wave against the Israeli occupation, several US lawmakers asked the departments of treasury and treasury to sanction the Israeli NSO Group and multiple other foreign surveillance companies.
Even Apple sued NSO Group for targeting the phones of its users, saying it was "seeking a permanent injunction to ban NSO Group from using any Apple software, services, or devices" to prevent "further abuse and harm to its users."
