A leak of thousands of contacts belonging to former prime minister Naftali Bennett, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's chief of staff Tzachi Braverman, and former justice minister Ayelet Shaked constitutes a severe information security breach, according to an investigation by Haaretz.
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Among the senior figures appearing in the lists are French President Emmanuel Macron; UAE ruler Mohammed bin Zayed; UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed; OpenAI CEO Sam Altman; and American venture capitalist Shaun Maguire, among many others.
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The leak is particularly dangerous because anyone who identifies sensitive officials in the contact lists – along with their personal mobile phone numbers – can now locate them in Israel and abroad, identify social media accounts linked to those numbers, and track them using a range of techniques. Such capabilities are typically reserved for state intelligence agencies. However, as Haaretz has previously reported, some of these tools have migrated into private hands, including geolocation surveillance conducted through open and proprietary advertising technologies.
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Three weeks ago, the Iranian-backed hacking group Handala claimed it had breached the device of former prime minister Bennett, leaking a list of approximately 4,500 contacts along with thousands of conversations (some from the past year) with a wide range of individuals. Bennett initially denied the claim, but later acknowledged that "after an examination, it appears that access to the Telegram account was gained through various means."
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According to cybersecurity experts, the exposure of phone numbers – particularly those belonging to sensitive targets – creates a "direct attack surface."
Itay Cohen, a senior principal cybersecurity researcher at Palo Alto Networks, explains:
"Leaked phone numbers may seem minor, but for high-profile officials and key personnel, they represent a direct attack surface. A phone number is a persistent identifier that enables targeted exploitation, impersonation and phishing. It can be abused through telecom-level vulnerabilities to infer network and geolocation data, increase the risk of account takeover via SMS-based recovery, and facilitate harassment or influence campaigns. Time and again, we've seen how small pieces of personal data, when combined with other leaked or public sources, quickly escalate into real security threats."
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"We know everything about you"

Haaretz has learned that Israelis whose phone numbers were exposed in the leaks have received SMS messages in recent weeks from a foreign actor claiming to be Iranian intelligence.
"Iranian intelligence is ready for your cooperation – you are invited to contact one of our embassies online," read one message. Another stated: "The doors of Iranian embassies are open to you." A third warned: "This is your last chance to save yourself and your family. Our embassies are open. We know everything about you." Some messages included links to files containing the ID numbers of the recipients' children, inviting them to "see the information we have."
Those who clicked were shocked to find extensive genealogical charts listing parents, children, uncles, cousins and other relatives. Haaretz confirmed that the foreign server hosted family trees for many Israelis – all of whom appeared in the Bennett, Braverman and Shaked contact leaks.

As described above, these genealogies were likely generated automatically by cross-referencing multiple breached databases, including the population registry, enabling links between phone numbers, ID numbers and family relationships. Such data has leaked repeatedly over the years, demonstrating how Iran systematically exploits accumulated breaches. While this operation appears intended primarily as intimidation rather than an imminent threat, it vividly illustrates the scale of the danger.

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