Iranian media threatens Israelis, lists those it claims 'live in hiding'

The publication of the list comes as Iran blames Israel for the assassination of IRGC Colonel Hassan Sayad Khodayari.

 Israeli businessmen the Iranian Fars News Agency claims it has intelligence on (photo credit: FARS NEWS AGENCY)
Israeli businessmen the Iranian Fars News Agency claims it has intelligence on
(photo credit: FARS NEWS AGENCY)

The Iranian Fars News Agency published a list on Sunday of Israeli businessmen who it claimed have to "live in hiding" due to their being followed by Iranian and pro-Iranian security and intelligence services.

Fars described the listed Israelis as "experts in the field of military, security, defense, cyber and technology of the interim Zionist regime," adding that they were "involved in sabotage against Islamic countries and the assassination of activists of the Islamic Resistance."

The publication of the list comes as Iran blames Israel for the assassination of Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Col. Hassan Sayad Khodayari and threatens revenge. In recent years, Tehran has also threatened revenge for the assassination of IRGC Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani and of nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.

The people listed by Fars were Amos Malka, founder and chairman of Nyotron Information Security and Spire Security Solutions; Amir Levintal, CEO at Cylus; Gal Genut, CEO at Analiza Education Center; Inbal Arieli, founder and CEO of Synthesis; and Amit Meltzer, a technology advisor.

Nearly all of the information reported by Fars as intelligence "obtained about the activities" of these people was available on their public LinkedIn pages, although the article did make mistakes, including writing that Levintal is a VP at IntSight despite his LinkedIn saying that he left that position last year.

 CHIEF OF STAFF of Iran’s Armed Forces Maj.-Gen. Mohammad Bagheri (right) and IRGC Aerospace Force Commander Amir Ali Hajizadeh at the unveiling of the Kheibarshekan missile at an undisclosed location in Iran, in February (credit: REUTERS)
CHIEF OF STAFF of Iran’s Armed Forces Maj.-Gen. Mohammad Bagheri (right) and IRGC Aerospace Force Commander Amir Ali Hajizadeh at the unveiling of the Kheibarshekan missile at an undisclosed location in Iran, in February (credit: REUTERS)

The report claimed that Iranian and pro-Iranian groups had additional details about the Israelis' family members, photos and videos, addresses, phone numbers, emails and other information, but this information was not included in the report. The news agency also claimed that "far more" people are under surveillance as well and that their information would be published over time.

Fars warned that the information shows that "the hand of the resistance is not closed with regard to planning for various, intelligent and innovative actions in the near future."

This isn't the first time that Iranian or pro-Iranian groups or media have tried to present publicly available information as confidential.

Last year, the pro-Iranian Moses Staff hacker group claimed that it had obtained a list of members of the 8200 intelligence unit from a classified file, although all the names listed had the information that they were or had been in the unit on their LinkedIn profiles.