Massive leak exposes masterminds behind Israel’s UAV arsenal

December 20, 2025 - 19:38

TEHRAN – In a blow to the Israeli military’s veil of secrecy on Saturday, the pro-Palestine hacking collective Handala released the full identities and professional profiles of the principal designers fueling the regime’s drone programs.

Handala asserts that these individuals are directly complicit in the systematic oppression of Palestinians, as their UAV technologies are central to military operations linked to widespread civilian casualties and violations of international law.

The breach signals an intensification of Handala’s ongoing digital campaign, which recently humiliated the security apparatus by infiltrating former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s phone and leaking over tens of thousands of private messages and contact numbers.

Preceding the Bennett hack, the group targeted the elite Unit 8200 and Iron Dome engineers.

The leaked dossiers detail the following figures:

Dan Dayan Rahamim: A reserve Colonel and former Home Front Command head who led multidisciplinary UAV projects at IAI and Elbit.

Oriel Klein: A senior software expert who developed avionics modules and ground control systems for Meteor Aerospace and IAI.

Michael Ptitsyn: A drone pilot specializing in machine learning algorithms for aerial operations.

Genrih Zmener: A technician who streamlined UAV integration workflows at IAI after serving as an Air Force avionics lead.

Ofer Mizrachi: An algorithm engineer at Elbit Systems focusing on flight control and autonomous swarm technology.

Berta Azar: A senior developer with top-secret clearance who designed tactical systems for the Prime Minister’s Office.

Shahar Gvir: An executive who managed mass production for Iron Dome controls and portable mini-UAV units.

Chen Zur: An Elbit systems engineer who develops critical validation tools and data analysis for drone platforms.

Itai Arnon: A robotics specialist and former tank commander involved in mechanical design and hardware QA.

Victorin Shadi Ron: A senior integration engineer for the Ministry of Defense specializing in techno-intelligence and RF communications.

Itamar Hoshmand: A software manager at Rafael, overseeing mission-critical autonomous drone architectures.