Iran is behind an attempted cyberattack last month on Israeli water infrastructure, foreign intelligence officials told The Washington Post on Sunday.
The attack was quickly detected and thwarted before it caused any damage.
But Axios reported that Israeli officials say the government, which reportedly held a top secret meeting on the issue in recent days, views the attempt as a major escalation by Tehran, and the crossing of a red line because the target was civilian water supplies.
The Iranian attempt to harm the water supplies comes amid an increased number of airstrikes on Iranian and Iranian-backed militias in Syria attributed to Israel in the past few weeks in a continued attempt to prevent Tehran from further entrenching itself in Syria and using its presence there as a way to up its threats on Israel, according to The Jerusalem Post.
Investigators discovered that the hackers who carried out the cyberattack routed their attempted sabotage through computer servers in the United States and Europe, which is a common technique used by enemies of the West, The Washington Post reported.
Foreign intelligence officials described the attempt as a coordinated attack, although it was not particularly sophisticated.
Iran denies that it was involved in the attack.