“Good morning ma’am, we are calling from the bank, are you at home?”. From the beginning of the violence between Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah movement, residents of southern Lebanon receive strange phone calls shortly before targeted Israeli strikes.

The callers are pretending to take a censushow they distribute aid or how they work for public institutions, but ta phone calls attributed to Lebanese security and Hezbollah officials in Israel.

Um Hussaina seventy-year-old woman from Hyam, received a phone call from a bank last week and the caller asked her to come in to withdraw a sum of moneywhile she had no bank account, her grandson, the Hasan Suqueir.

“She was asked if she was in Hiam and the call ended when she replied that she was in Beirut”, he adds. Soon after, an Israeli strike targeted the house next to hers in the village, according to her grandson.

Similar incidents have been repeated in recent weeks in southern Lebanonfrom where Hezbollah has been launching daily since the start of the Gaza war on October 7, attacks against Israel to support the Palestinian Hamas.

Israel responds by shelling border villages and the violence has claimed the lives of more than 190 people in Lebanon, including at least 141 Hezbollah fighters.

On the Israeli side, 15 people have been killed – nine soldiers and six civilians – according to the Israeli army.

“To blind the enemy”

With her announcement, Hezbollah he asked the few inhabitants left in the border villages, as well most have left them because of the violencenot to answer questions on phone calls received from unknown Lebanese numbers.

“The enemy is exploiting this information to ensure that our fellow fighters are inside the homes they plan to target”the party warned.

According to a source in the security forces, Lebanese army intelligence and police attribute these calls to Israelwhich has reportedly managed to penetrate the Lebanese telecommunications network.

According to the source, Israel has repeatedly used this tactic before targeting Hezbollah fighters fortified in dwellings.

On November 22, a strike thus struck a house in the village of Beit Yahun killing five Hezbollah fightersincluding the son of the head of the party’s parliamentary group, Mohammed Raad.

The homeowner had received a phone call prior to the impactwith the caller making sure the family was not at home, the security source said.

Asked whether these calls were being made by Israel, a spokeswoman for the Israeli military told AFP that “he can’t answer.”

Israel has also intercepted private security cameras in front of homes or shops in border villagesaccording to Hezbollah.

The party asked the residents to turn off these cameras in order to “blind the enemy”.

A resident of southern Lebanon told AFP, asking not to be named, that he had disconnected the cameras he installed around his house from the Internet at Hezbollah’s request.

Lack of protection

According to the source in the security forces, three Lebanese suspected of espionage were recently arrested. One of them allegedly scanned the Wi-Fi networks of homes in the southern suburbs of Beirut, which are a Hezbollah stronghold.

Militants of the powerful Shiite movement said that, since the start of the conflict, they have targeted dozens of spy rigs and cameras installed on towers and inside Israeli military centers on the border with Lebanon.

Since Israel has resorted more to wiretapping and surveillance camerasaccording to the pro-Iran formation.

Abed Kataya, director of digital content at SMEX, a digital rights organization, explained to AFP that the wiretapping is due to the fact that communications over the Internet and phone calls are rarely encrypted.

According to him, private surveillance cameras are connected to a mobile application installed by the user and the Internet connection often “it is not encryptedwhich facilitates its interception”.

“Israel has a long history of wiretapping techniques”he recalls adding that the communications infrastructure in Lebanon, which is under economic collapse, is not properly protected.

On January 7, a cyber attack took place on the screens of the Beirut airport terminals, with the pirates posting messages hostile to Hezbollah. The perpetrators were not identified.

“The Lebanese state has no expertise in cyber security”the Minister of Public Works and Transport Ali Hamle had admitted at the time.