A joint UK-US intelligence programme has been spying on electronic feeds – including video – from Israel’s military drones and jet fighters going back to 1998.



In a potentially embarrassing disclosure for Israel, which prides itself on its technical capabilities, a new release from material held by the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden has revealed that UK and US intelligence officials have been regularly accessing Israeli cockpit cameras even in the midst of operations in Gaza and Lebanon.

Codenamed Anarchist, the programme was revealed by the Intercept, a US website.

The revelation – while played down by Israeli defence sources – has demonstrated again the level of surveillance aimed at Israel by countries usually regarded as friendly.

The drone feeds were reportedly hacked using freely available software similar to that used to access subscriber-only TV channels, the report said.

According to the Intercept, the surveillance operation is run from GCHQ in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, and the actual surveillance undertaken from a UK base in Cyprus.

Last month, the Wall Street Journal disclosed that the US had continued spying on the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, and other top Israeli officials despite a promise after the Snowden revelations to stop intercepting the communications of friendly heads of state.

Yuval Steinitz, Israel’s energy minister and a member of Netanyahu’s security cabinet, sought to play down the issue but said lessons would be learned.

“I do not think that this is the deepest kingdom of secrets, but it is certainly something that should not happen, which is unpleasant,” he told Israel’s Army Radio. “We will now have to look and consider changing the encryption, certainly.”

The ability of the UK and the US to intercept encrypted military communications – including being able to hack into Israeli operations as they are occurring – exposes the deep vulnerabilities in Israel’s military communications, leading to questions over who else may have penetrated them.

According to the leaked documents, GCHQ first began intercepting Israeli drone communications as early as 1998, and there is evidence that the practice was still continuing until recently.

In one instance, the leaked documents reveal, GCHQ ordered officials working on the programme in 2008 to access drones flying over the Golan Heights, the West Bank and Gaza, as well as Israel’s borders with Lebanon and Syria.

“This access is indispensable for maintaining an understanding of Israeli military training and operations and thus an insight to possible future developments in the region,” a GCHQ report from 2008 is quoted as saying. “In times of crisis this access is critical and one of the only avenues to provide up to the minute information and support to US and allied operations in the area.”

The surveillance was carried out from an RAF installation in the Troodos mountains in Cyprus used to target the eastern Mediterranean and north Africa.

According to the documents, interest in the Israeli drones was at its highest during Israeli military operations, and the drones were also monitored for any signs that Israel might be preparing for military action against Iran.

In one memo reporting on interception of an Israeli drones, an official in Cyprus noted: “Our ability to collect and track and report this activity is important for the initial detection and tip-off for any potential pre-emptive or retaliatory strike against Iran.”

In 2008, according to the documents, the programme managed to intercept a video feed from an Israeli jet targeting Gaza for the first time.

According to a report in an internal newsletter for the NSA, analysts had “collected video for the first time from the cockpit of an Israeli Air Force F-16 fighter jet, [which] showed a target on the ground being tracked.”

Israel voiced disappointment at the disclosures, which might further strains ties with Washington after years of feuding over strategies on Iran and the Palestinians.

The US embassy in Israel did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A British embassy spokeswoman said it did not comment on intelligence matters and there was no immediate response from the Foreign Office in London.

• This article was updated on 29 January to correct a reference to Glenn Greenwald as the editor of The Intercept. He is a contributor.