Residents of northern Tel Aviv found leaflets in their mailboxes on Monday, each printed with a QR code. Scanning it opened a webpage that the Israel Police deemed "suspected threatening content." The Jerusalem Post reports that the police and the Shin Bet announced an investigation, and that police link the message to Handala, an Iran-linked hacktivist group.

The threats aim at Israel's water and power. The webpage warns that Israel will pay if its leaders "attack the energy infrastructure of the Resistance Front." Part of the message read: "Not a single power plant, refinery, or desalination plant will remain in the occupied territories. From south to north, your energy and water arteries will shatter like glass." It added: "When the shadows of the Resistance decide to act, you will face a world where darkness and thirst will be your only companions, day and night."

The Serbian news site B92 reports that officers went to several addresses in Tel Aviv and collected the leaflets as evidence. Handala claimed responsibility on its Telegram channel, saying dozens of its operatives had spread hundreds of thousands of leaflets in the heart of Tel Aviv. Police asked anyone who finds a leaflet to contact the authorities, the Post said.

What it means: this threat did not arrive only on a screen. It came on paper, into people's homes. Handala has ties to Iran's Intelligence and Security Ministry, according to a US Justice Department assessment cited by the Post, even though the group calls itself an "independent organization." B92 notes the group has hit American and Israeli companies and individuals since the war with Iran began in late February.

Israel already carries a heavy cyber load. Microsoft's 2026 Digital Defense Report, published October 5, ranked Israel the second most targeted country in the world for cyberattacks, with 210 observed events to 531 for the United States. Israel National Cyber Directorate chief Yossi Karadi described Israel as "in an intense campaign in cyberspace and standing at the forefront of global threats."

The leaflets promised darkness and thirst. The Psalmist promised something else: “Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.” (Psalm 121:4)