Iran Sends Threatening Hebrew Text Messages to Thousands of Israelis, Israel National Cyber Directorate Says

Thousands of Israelis reported receiving threatening Hebrew text messages overnight, which the Israel National Cyber Directorate said it had identified as a broad influence operation using threatening text messages to undermine “our collective peace of mind.”

The messages, attributed to ayatollahs’ regime in Tehran, invited recipients: “The Islamic Republic of Iran invites you to take part in an action in the intelligence field.”

ABC News

ynet’s security analyst Ron Ben-Yishai told ynet the activity was “not a show of strength but rather an expression of panic on the Iranian side.”

The ynet account described one citizen receiving six different text messages within just one hour, and the campaign was framed as mass distribution rather than a sign that phones were breached or private accounts compromised.

The Israel National Cyber Directorate’s guidance, as described by ynet, urged people not to reply, not to click on attached links, and not to forward messages to family WhatsApp groups while relying on official sources.

DW described how, in the early days of the war, Iranian intelligence agencies flooded Iran's Kurds with text messages warning them not to cooperate with mercenaries dispatched by the United States and Israel.

DW also said a second wave of messages threatened Iranian Kurds who had entered foreign websites, while in neighboring Iraq the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched a pressure campaign with a phone call to the Kurdistan Regional Government.

Anadolu Ajansı

Two Kurdish officials told Reuters reporters cited by DW that IRGC callers warned they would attack Iraqi Kurdish forces near the border if they did not withdraw within an hour, and DW said the Iraqi Kurds withdrew from the border and publicly stated they did not want to be dragged into war.

DW further reported that Iraqi Kurdish fighters nonetheless faced deadly Iranian drone attacks, while militants said IRGC aircraft and missiles targeted Iranian Kurdish fighters in Iraq, killing five and destroying bases believed to be secure.

In the same DW account, Reuters analysis cited by DW said from the start of the war through the end of March, Iran and its allies fired at least 388 missiles and drones at Iraqi Kurdistan, and nearly half of these strikes targeted Kurdish political groups and Kurdish fighters.

Ynetglobal’s broader framing of “cognitive warfare” and mass distribution systems sits alongside reporting on hack-and-leak operations, where attackers infiltrate systems and then publish stolen information online.

“In the early days of the war, Iranian intelligence agencies flooded Iran's Kurds with text messages warning them not to cooperate with mercenaries dispatched by the United States and Israel”

DW

In the Iran-linked hacking reporting, Euronews said a hacker group claimed it hacked Naftali Bennett's phone and published 200,000 private messages, 1,900 chats, several photos, and a 141-page contact list.

Euronews also quoted Ari Ben-Ami, a researcher at the Cyber Innovation and Technology Center at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, saying: “There is a sharp increase in the tempo of operations and in the number of operations observed.”

The same Euronews account included Check Point’s Sergei Shaikovich saying: “The goal of the Iran-linked hacking groups is to show that the Israeli government cannot protect its citizens.”

Euronews added that, despite Israel’s global reputation as a cyber power, Israeli officials and cybersecurity experts said these operations have been successful in targeting institutions and producing data that could be used by foreign intelligence services.