According to a cyber-security watchdog, dozens of journalists at the Al Jazeera Media Network were targeted this year by advanced Israeli spyware, linked with the governments of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Researchers from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto published a report on Sunday, detailing how the Pegasus spyware infected the cellular devices of 36 journalists, producers, anchors and executives at the media network.

The Citizen Lab report has linked these unprecedented cyber attacks to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, with Tamer Almisshal, an investigative journalist with Al Jazeera, stating that a company-wide probe was launched after several death threats were received, adding that "They threatened to make me the new Jamal Khashoggi".

Upon receiving these threats, Almisshal stated that "Based on this, we handed the phone to Citizen Lab, who found that the phone was hacked by spyware called Pegasus, which is developed by NSO, an Israeli company", which revealed that "[the] hacking was done by a so-called zero-click technique where they can access cameras and track the device".

As of June 2017, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt imposed a diplomatic, trade and travel boycott on Qatar, accusing Doha of sponsoring "terrorism" and maintaining ties with the adversarial Iranian regime.

The boycotting coalition issued multiple demands, including the closure of a Turkish military base in Qatar, reducing ties with Iran and shutting down the Al Jazeera Media Network.

In response, Qatar has consistently rejected these claims and refused to fulfill any demands that undermine its sovereignty.