While Iran’s foreign ministry has denied reports about hacking the telephones of Israeli politicians, a conservative ayatollah has claimed Iran has hacked the telephones of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “family”.

Ahmad Alamolhoda, the custodian of the holy shrine in Mashhad and a close ally of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei also claimed on March 22: “In the past few days Iran’s cyber-attacks have resulted in hacking the mobile telephone of a candidate in Israeli elections and access to all the information”.

Referring to media reports, he added that Iran has hacked the telephones of Netanyahu family members. The news about the prime minister's family first emerged on a new Saudi based news website, Independent Arabic.

Israel’s Channel 12 TV reported last week that the mobile phone of Benny Gantz a leading candidate in the upcoming Israeli elections and also another candidate were hacked by Iran.

Netanyahu got involved in the controversy by denying he had a role in publicizing the hacking story, insisting that Iran is supporting the rival candidates. Gantz and his supporters claimed that Netanyahu is involving Iran’s name in the elections to increase his chances for victory.