Iranian hacking group claims to seize damning info from phone of PM’s chief of staff

A group of Iranian hackers claimed on Sunday that it had cracked the cellphone of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s chief of staff, Tzachi Braverman, and threatened to release information tying him to the Qatargate scandal.

The same group claimed last week to have broken into former prime minister Naftali Bennett’s phone.

In a statement on X, the Handala hack group said it had hacked into an iPhone 16 Pro Max belonging to Braverman, adding it would release later in the day details of his alleged involvement in the scandal that has roiled Netanyahu’s office.

The first files released purportedly contain phone numbers of top officials and others in Netanyahu’s inner circle, including the premier’s wife Sara Netanyahu.

There are also what appear to be innocuous videos and official documents, including one on emergency procedures put in place during the June war with Iran.

The group called its operation Bibi Gate, an apparent reference to the affair.

The Prime Minister’s Office told The Times of Israel, “No breach has been found. The issue is being investigated.”

“We have everything: encrypted chats, hidden deals, shameful moral and financial indulgences, abuse of power, blackmail, payoffs. For years, you performed your little dance, thinking Handala was not among you. But we were in the room, every time,” the hacker group claimed.

“The files, the voices, the videos, every thread of Braverman’s double life, every secret that ties your regime to the heart of corruption, are about to surface,” Handala wrote.

Bibi Gate Operation: The Gatekeeper’s Fall

To Netanyahu’s inner circle,
To every official still clutching the illusion of secrecy
You feel it now: the tightening chest, the cold sweat, the gnawing dread. That’s not just fear, it’s the knowledge that every layer of your security,… pic.twitter.com/LgW6ek4tu1

— HANDALA (@Handala_Red) December 28, 2025

In the Qatargate affair, two of Netanyahu’s advisers are alleged, while they were in his employ, to have worked on behalf of Qatar for the Perception PR firm headed by Yisrael Einhorn, Netanyahu’s former campaign manager.

In a separate but related scandal, one of the advisers, Eli Feldstein, has admitted to also leaking classified information to the German newspaper Bild, as part of an alleged scheme to sway public opinion and ease pressure on Jerusalem to reach a deal with Hamas on the release of the hostages held in Gaza.

In a lengthy interview last week, Feldstein claimed that Braverman learned of a secret IDF investigation into his leak to Bild months before it was publicized and reassured him in a private conversation that the probe could be quashed, as well as an investigation regarding IDF information security if Feldstein needed it.

Feldstein also alleged during the interview that Netanyahu was behind the Bild leak last year.

Braverman is slated to become Israel’s ambassador to the UK. Both he and Netanyahu deny any involvement in the scandals.

Earlier this month, images, contacts, and other information claimed by Handala to have been obtained from Bennett’s phone were published on a website alleged to be run by the hacker group, and a link to download what it claimed was his list of phone contacts was shared by the account @Handala_Red on X.

There was no way to confirm that the account and the website were run by the group claiming to have hacked the former prime minister’s phone. Bennett said that while his phone itself was not hacked, unauthorized access was gained to his Telegram account.

Along with the message and the list of contacts, Handala published various images of Bennett with his family and at public events, as well as photos of several official letters that it claimed he had sent and received.

Bennett, who served as prime minister from June 2021 to June 2022, is seen as the most credible challenger to Netanyahu in next year’s elections.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.