people standing outside a locked down school

Israeli teen charged over school bomb and shooting hoax calls

The culprit behind almost 600 hoax bomb and shooting threats that terrorised Australian schools over the past year has been identified as an Israeli teenager working from his suburban bedroom, who allegedly raked in a small fortune by making the hoax calls for anonymous buyers on the “dark- net” website Alphabay.

Schools nationwide were evacuated after receiving recorded messages warning of a bomb or active shooter on school grounds, with calls peaking in February and December last year. At least 64 separate schools were hoaxed during one day alone, wreaking havoc and leaving parents and staff in fear. Hospitals, airlines and childcare centres were also targeted.

The source of the hoaxes, or even if they were connected, remained a mystery until this week, when the calls appeared in charges laid by Israeli police against an 18-year-old dual Israeli-American citizen from the city of Ashkelon, south of Tel Aviv.

Read the full article by Jacob Atkins at The Australian (subscription only).