A commission of inquiry will be set up by Israel's government to examine reports claiming that the police used spyware to hack the phones of Israeli public figures without authorisation. The spyware was made by NSO Group.

NSO Group, an Israeli surveillance firm, has faced widespread allegations that its hacking software Pegasus has been sold to and misused by authoritarian governments across the world.

The company insisted that it does not operate the software once it is sold to clients and has previously stated that it could not be used to track Israeli citizens. It has however not commented on the latest development.

Officials, protesters, journalists and a son of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were among those targeted, the local newspaper Calcalist reported.

A witness in Mr Netanyahu's corruption trial was also allegedly monitored. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said the reports, if true, were "very serious".

Pegasus infects phones, allowing operators to extract messages, photos and emails, record calls and secretly activate microphones and cameras.

Pegasus and similar tools are important in the fight against terrorism and severe crime. But they were not intended to be used in phishing campaigns targeting the Israeli public or officials, which is why we need to understand exactly what happened," Mr Bennett said in a statement.

The surveillance was conducted by the force's cyber-SIGINT unit to "phish for intelligence even before any investigation had been opened against the targets, and without judicial warrants", according to the Israeli business daily.

The list of targets as reported by BBC allegedly included, Director-generals of the ministries, leaders of protests, mayors, former prime minister's media advisers, a supermarket magnate and chairman of workers' union.
-BBC