Can Israel Really Hack WhatsApp? Iran’s Claims May Be Closer to Truth

Iranian officials today urged citizens to immediately delete WhatsApp from their smartphones. The messaging platform, they allege, is being used as a surveillance tool by Israel to gather personal data on Iranian users. But with no public evidence provided, the claim remains unverified yet raises valid concerns amid a broader, hidden war being fought behind screens.

Meta, which owns WhatsApp, swiftly denied the accusations. In a statement, WhatsApp said it was concerned these false reports will be an excuse for its services to be blocked at a time when people need them the most.

We do not track your precise location; we don’t keep logs of who everyone is messaging, and we do not track the personal messages people are sending one another.

We do not provide bulk information to any government.”

But while WhatsApp does boast world-class privacy protections, the app is not immune to intrusion, especially from nation-states with elite cyber capabilities. And among those, Israel stands near the top.

WhatsApp’s Defenses—and Their Limits

WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption remains its key privacy feature. In theory, only the sender and recipient can access the contents of a message. But these defenses can be bypassed, not by breaking the encryption, but by compromising the device itself.

This is where spearphishing attacks come into play. Unlike traditional phishing, which casts a wide net, spearphishing is highly targeted. Attackers send messages that appear credible and urgent, posing as coworkers, friends, or institutions to lure individuals into clicking malicious links or downloading infected attachments.

Once inside, spyware can capture everything: messages, calls, files, and even microphone or camera feeds. Israel has previously used this method to breach even secure apps like WhatsApp.

Israel WhatsApp hack: Why Iran’s Allegations Are Plausible

While Iran has offered no public evidence to back its claim that WhatsApp is being used by Israel to surveil Iranian citizens, brushing off the allegation as mere cyber paranoia would be shortsighted.

Israel has long been a cyber powerhouse. Alongside the U.S., China, and Russia, it ranks among the most capable nations in cyber warfare. Its notorious Unit 8200, a military intelligence division, has pioneered digital spying tactics now emulated by cybersecurity agencies worldwide.

Given Israel’s globally recognized cyber warfare capabilities, including documented incidents of WhatsApp breaches through spyware like Pegasus, Iran’s warning does not seem far-fetched. In fact, it aligns with a pattern of sophisticated Israeli cyber operations that have successfully penetrated some of the world’s most secure communication systems.

This isn’t an isolated theory. The Stuxnet worm, co-developed by Israel and the U.S., is still considered one of the most advanced cyberattacks ever, targeting Iran’s nuclear infrastructure with military precision. Israeli firms like NSO Group and Paragon Solutions have been caught exploiting vulnerabilities in WhatsApp to conduct targeted surveillance on activists, politicians, and high-profile individuals.

So while the Iranian government’s sudden call to delete WhatsApp may serve broader domestic or geopolitical goals, the technical plausibility of Israeli cyber surveillance through common apps is real and supported by past precedent.