The number of Iranian cyberattacks against Israel has shot up since the launch of the US-Israeli war with Iran this year, Yossi Karadi, director general of the National Cyber Directorate, was quoted as saying on Monday.

Karadi told German newspaper Die Welt that in June 2025, during the first round of war between Israel and Iran, Israel’s authorities registered around 1,600 hostile cyber incidents.

During the same month in 2026, the number had jumped to some 4,800 incidents, he told the paper.

“Some groups are very skilled,” Karadi said, according to the German text of the interview, identifying the Iranian cyber warfare apparatus as “a multi-layered system.”

At its core is the Iranian military and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Karadi said, which both have complete cyber warfare divisions, but below that level are civilians and activists “who hack out of conviction or are paid to do so.”

Karadi identified Iran’s digital propaganda, including its popular Lego-style AI animation videos, as part of the cyber war waged by the IRGC and its activists, which supplement their more direct hacking attempts.

“We can handle them, but we have to take them seriously,” he said. “Unlike in the kinetic realm, there’s no ceasefire in........

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