Israel’s Public Security Minister, Omer Barlev, announced Monday that he will set up a commission of inquiry to investigate the Israeli police’s alleged use of NSO group’s Pegasus spyware for illicit surveillance of citizens.

Barlev initially denied that the Israeli police used the spyware for illegal surveillance following allegations by Israeli news portal Calcalist’s investigative report. But on Monday, Barlev declared the intention to establish a cabinet-level commission headed by a retired judge to investigate any civil rights violations.

Barlev said, “[The committee] will investigate not only what has been published, but also what has not yet been published.” But he denied any wrongdoing during his time as security minister: “From the evidence that emerges, it appears that the failures, if any, were under previous commissioners, under previous Homeland Security ministers and under previous governments . . . [M]y failures will not happen — the police are under my responsibility and my authority and I will make sure that if there was a violation of democracy that happened in previous years, I will denounce it and not let it happen.”

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said, “The reports about Pegasus, if they are true, are very serious. This tool and similar tools, are important tools 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.”

In January this year, Calcalist accused the police’s special operations cyber unit in SIGINT of using Pegasus spyware to obtain remote access to calls, messages and data on the devices of citizens. The police allegedly hacked phones both to find evidence that corroborates existing suspicions and to phish for data that incriminates otherwise innocent citizens. Data harvested through Pegasus was also used to coerce witnesses during investigations.

On Monday, Calcalist released a detailed list of individuals who were allegedly targeted by the police. The list features leaders of the protests against former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, family members and advisers of the former prime minister, mayors, former CEOs of the ministries of transport, finance and justice, prominent businesspersons, executives of corporations and journalists.