Amnon Lord, a columnist for the pro-Netanyahu daily Israel Hayom, called for a trial.
The witness whose phone was reportedly hacked, Shlomo Filber, is expected to testify in the coming days, and Netanyahu’s lawyers are expected to request a postponement of his testimony. It remains unclear whether any of the evidence allegedly collected was used against Netanyahu.
Police and a lawyer for Netanyahu did not respond to a request for comment. The Israeli Ministry of Justice declined to comment. Prosecutors have told Netanyahu’s lawyers that they are “thoroughly reviewing” the reports, according to internal releases by The Associated Press.
The report comes after Israeli newspaper Calcalist reported that Israeli police had been pursuing targets without proper authorization. Last week, the Israeli National Police announced it had found evidence He points to the abuse of the spyware by his own investigators to spy on the phones of Israeli citizens. The revelations shocked Israelis and drew condemnation from across the political spectrum.
Authorities have not said which spyware may have been misused.
But the Calcalist report said at least some of the cases involved the Israeli company NSO.
NSO is Israel’s best-known maker of offensive cyberware, but it’s far from the only one. Its flagship product, Pegasus, allows operators to seamlessly infiltrate a target’s cell phone and gain access to the device’s content, including messages and contacts, as well as location history.
NSO has faced increasing scrutiny over Pegasus, which has been linked to human rights snooping activists, journalists and politicians worldwide in countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
NSO says all of its sales have been approved by the Israeli Defense Ministry. Such sales reportedly played a key role in the development of Israel’s relations with the Gulf Arab states.
Aluf Benn, editor of Haaretz daily, said it was a surprising turn of events that Netanyahu was now portraying himself as a victim.
“How ironic: the man who used Pegasus for foreign policy gains now believes he lost his power at home because of the spyware,” he wrote.