Israel allegedly hacked Beirut airport ‘s control tower, warning an Iranian plane not to land, forcing it to return to Tehran.
The Israeli cyber army on Saturday hacked into the control tower of Beirut Airport, the Rafic Hariri International Airport. The IDF breached the communication network of the control tower and threatened an Iranian civilian plane attempting to land, reported the MiddleEastMonitor website.
The Lebanese Ministry of Transport instructed airport authorities to block the Iranian aircraft from entering Lebanese airspace in response to the hack. This decision followed Israeli military warnings about preventing weapons transfers to Hezbollah via Beirut’s airport.
“We will not allow the transfer of weapons to Hezbollah in any form. We are aware of Iranian weapons transfers to Hezbollah, and we will work to thwart them,” Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a statement. “We declare that we will not allow hostile aircraft carrying weapons to land at the civilian airport in Beirut. This is a civilian airport for civilian use, and it must remain that way,” he added.
Lebanon’s Transport Minister, Ali Hamieh, told the Lebanese newspaper “An-Nahar” that Israel’s IDF intercepted the airport’s control tower radio, threatening to attack the infrastructure if the Iranian plane landed.
“According to reports, Israel supposedly hacked into the communications system of the Beirut control tower, warning that it would not allow the landing of a cargo plane from “Qasem Air,” Flight No. QFZ9964, as it was approaching for landing.” reported The Jerusalem Post.
Israel’s army claimed that Beirut International Airport was being used as an entry point for weapons to Hezbollah. However, Lebanese authorities denied the accusation, stating that the airport is strictly civilian.
On Saturday, the Israeli army announced the success of a recent airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburb that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon
Pierluigi Paganini
(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Beirut airport)