Today, the American "Axios" website, citing a knowledgeable source, said that Israeli agencies are apparently using the controversial spy software - "Pegasus", created by the Israeli "NSO" group, to locate missing people, abductees and abductees in Gaza following the ongoing Hamas attack Blood on October 7.

The "Pegasus" software enables spying on phones through access to messages, data, photos and contacts, and also enables remote activation of the microphone and camera.

Last month, Bloomberg reported, from knowledgeable sources, that the Israeli security services use companies specializing in the production of spyware, including NSO, to help track hostages held by the Hamas movement.

The NSO Group is blacklisted in the United States, which prohibits federal agencies from using its software, and the company has launched a major lobbying campaign to remove its name from that list.

A source close to the company told the Axios website yesterday that a number of Israeli agencies apparently use the Pegasus software, which is capable of hacking into phones, "to help track down people kidnapped by Hamas, as well as people who disappeared during the attack."

The Axios website said the software could be used to track the cell phone signals of the people on the ground during the Hamas attack, and track those signals before and after the attack.

NSO is working with other companies and former employees to track and unlock the phones of people who have been killed or are missing, as well as the phones of terrorists, according to the report.

A source said he did not know if the Israeli government had guarantees that the program would not be used for large-scale spying on Palestinians.