Iran Cyberattack on Israel’s Water Supply Could Have Sickened Hundreds

Photo: Haaretz
Photo: Haaretz
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Iran Cyberattack on Israel’s Water Supply Could Have Sickened Hundreds

Photo: Haaretz
Photo: Haaretz

The Financial Times published a report Monday saying that hundreds of people would have been at risk of getting sick after Iran's cyberattack against Israel’s water systems in April.

The British newspaper quoted a Western intelligence official as saying that Iran tried to increase chlorine levels in the water flowing to residential areas and that the attack was close to being successful.

“It was more sophisticated than they [Israel] initially thought,” the Western official said. “It was close to successful, and it’s not fully clear why it didn’t succeed.”

An unnamed Israeli official told the Financial Times that the attack created “an unpredictable risk scenario” by starting a tit-for-tat wave of attacks on civilian infrastructure, something both countries had so far avoided.

An Iranian regime insider dismissed the allegations to the newspaper, saying that "Iran cannot politically afford to try to poison Israeli civilians."

The head of Israel’s National Cyber Directorate, Yigal Unna, hinted last week that the attack may have aimed to mix chlorine or other chemicals into the water supply.

Unna did not mention Iran directly, nor did he comment on the alleged Israeli retaliation two weeks later, but he said recent developments have ushered in a new era of covert warfare.



3 Tourists among 4 Killed after Italian Cable Car Crashes into Ravine South of Naples

View of the Monte Faito cable car departure station in Castellammare di Stabia near Naples, southern Italy, Friday, April 18, 2025, with the cabin from which nine passengers were rescued when the traction cable broke Thursday, killing four people in another cabin that fell further up the mountain. (AP Photo/Salvatore Laporta)
View of the Monte Faito cable car departure station in Castellammare di Stabia near Naples, southern Italy, Friday, April 18, 2025, with the cabin from which nine passengers were rescued when the traction cable broke Thursday, killing four people in another cabin that fell further up the mountain. (AP Photo/Salvatore Laporta)
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3 Tourists among 4 Killed after Italian Cable Car Crashes into Ravine South of Naples

View of the Monte Faito cable car departure station in Castellammare di Stabia near Naples, southern Italy, Friday, April 18, 2025, with the cabin from which nine passengers were rescued when the traction cable broke Thursday, killing four people in another cabin that fell further up the mountain. (AP Photo/Salvatore Laporta)
View of the Monte Faito cable car departure station in Castellammare di Stabia near Naples, southern Italy, Friday, April 18, 2025, with the cabin from which nine passengers were rescued when the traction cable broke Thursday, killing four people in another cabin that fell further up the mountain. (AP Photo/Salvatore Laporta)

Three tourists, including a British couple, were among four people who were killed when a mountain cable car plunged into a ravine south of Naples, officials confirmed Saturday.

Britain's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said in a statement that it is "supporting the families of a British couple who have died in Italy and are in touch with the local authorities.”

On Friday, a day after the accident, a spokesperson for the mayor of Vico Equense had said that the pair were siblings, but confirmed Saturday that that was based on bad information.

An Israeli woman was the third foreign victim to be identified following Thursday's accident.

The fourth victim was the Italian driver of the cable car. A fifth tourist, said to be the brother of the Israeli victim, is in a stable but critical condition at a Naples hospital, officials said, The AP news reported.

Initial reports suggested that a traction cable may have snapped as the cable car ascended Monte Faito, in the town of Castellammare di Stabia. The cable car plunged into a ravine after stopping very close to the station at the top of the peak, at around 1,050 meters (3,400 feet).

Sixteen passengers were helped out of another cable car that was stuck mid-air near the foot of the mountain following the incident.

The accident happened just a week after the cable car, which is popular for its views of Mount Vesuvius and the Bay of Naples, reopened for the season. It averages around 110,000 visitors each year.

The emergency services, including Italy’s alpine rescue, more than 50 firefighters, police and civil protection personnel, worked into the evening in severe weather conditions, with fog and strong winds making rescue operations difficult.

“The traction cable broke. The emergency brake downstream worked, but evidently not the one on the cabin that was entering the station," Luigi Vicinanza, the mayor of Castellammare di Stabia, said on Thursday. He added that there had been regular safety checks on the cable car line, which runs 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) from the town to the top of the mountain.

Local prosecutors have opened an investigation into possible manslaughter, which will involve an inspection of the cable stations, the pylons, the two cabins and the cable, officials said Friday.

The company running the service, the EAV public transport firm, said the seasonal cable car had reopened with all the required safety conditions.

“The reopening had taken place a week ago after three months of tests every day, day and night," said EAV President Umberto De Gregorio. "This is something inexplicable.”

De Gregorio said technical experts believed there was no connection between the severe weather and the cause of the crash. "There is an automatic system. When the wind exceeds a certain level, the cable car stops automatically,” he said.

The Monte Faito cable car opened in 1952. Four people died in 1960 when a pylon broke.

Italy has recorded two similar fatal accidents involving cable cars in recent years.

A cable car crash in May 2021 in northern Italy killed 14 people, including six Israelis, among them a family of four. In 1998, a low-flying US military jet cut through the cable of a ski lift in Cavalese, in the Dolomites, killing 20 people.