Britain and america have tracked communications and secret sorties in a hacking operation by Israel’s air force dating back to 1998, according to records credited to leaks by former US spy agency contractor Edward Snowden.

Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth said and its own British counterpart GCHQ spied against Iran, Syria and the Palestinian enclave Gaza on Israeli air force missions.

Its findings were reflected the internet publication The Intercept as well as by narratives in Germany’s Der Spiegel newsmagazine, which records Snowden confidant Glenn Greenwald among its associates.

“This accessibility is essential for keeping a comprehension of Israeli military training and operations and therefore an insight to potential future developments in the area,” The Intercept quoted a classified GCHQ report as saying in 2008.

Asked for opinion, Britain and America said through representative for their embassies in Israel that they don’t openly discuss intelligence issues.

Not “deepest realm of secrets”
Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz, an associate of the security cabinet of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, sought to play down the possible damage but said lessons would be learned.

“I don’t believe this is the deepest realm of secrets, but it’s definitely something that must not occur, which is disagreeable,” he told Israel’s Army Radio. “We will finally need to appear and contemplate altering the encryption, definitely.”

With Obama administration and the Netanyahu government at loggerheads over the US-directed nuclear deal with Iran, there have been a run of high profile media exposes in recent months alleging reciprocal espionage between the friends.

“We are aware the Americans spy on the entire world, as well as on us, also on their buddies,” Steinitz said. “But nevertheless, it’s unsatisfactory, inter alia because, going back decades already, we never have spied nor gathered intelligence nor hacked encryptions in America.”

The Intercept report contained what it said were pictures of armed Israeli drones hacked from onboard cameras’ live feeds.

Yedioth stated that Israeli drone sales could damage to Germany should Berlin worry about the aircraft networks’ security. But that chance was brushed off by Steinitz.

“Every state carries out its own encryption,” he said.