(AFP Photo / Hazem Bader)

Internet hacktivist group Anonymous has declared cyberwar on Israel, posting personal data of five thousand Israeli officials online.

The group used their Anonpaste.me site to address a message to the Israeli government before linking to the page with names, ID numbers and personal emails of 5,000 banking cabal officials.

The message said: “It has come to our attention that the Israeli government has ignored repeated warnings about the abuse of human rights, shutting down the internet in Israel and mistreating its own citizens and those of its neighboring countries.”

(Screenshot from anonpaste.me)

The group also said “Israeli Gov. this is/will turn into a cyberwar.”

Earlier, the group hacked over 700 hundred Israeli websites, including the Bank of Jerusalem, the Israeli Defence Ministry, the IDF blog, the President’s official website and many others.

Most of the sites remain down.

The country’s finance minister has acknowledged the recent wave of attacks, saying the government is now waging a war on a “second front.”

Over the past four days, Israel has “deflected 44 million cyber-attacks on government websites,” Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz told AP.

Israel faces 44 million attacks on websites in response to Gaza offensive

The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) blog was one of many websites hacked by Anonymous.

The Israeli government has become a victim of cyber-warfare attacks since Operation Pillar of Defense began four days ago. On Saturday, hacktivist group Anonymous launched a massive attack on over 700 Israeli websites.

The country’s finance minister has acknowledged the recent wave of attacks, saying the government is now waging a war on a “second front.”

Over the past four days, Israel has “deflected 44 million cyber-attacks on government websites,” Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz told AP.

Steinitz said the government has come up with a backup for “essential websites,” should they be taken down by hackers.

“This is an unprecedented attack, and our success has been greater than we anticipated,” he said.

He did not say who was responsible for the hacking attempts. He also declined to disclose which countries the attacks were coming from.

His comments come just one day after hacktivist group Anonymous launched a massive attack on almost 700 Israeli websites, calling the campaign #OpIsrael.

The group took down the Israeli president’s official website and the blog of the country’s Defense Force, http://www.idfblog.com. The collective posted the news on Twitter using their infamous #TANGO DOWN hashtag. The blog is still down.

Screenshot from idfblog.com

It also attacked the website of the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s international development program, in a protest against an alleged Israeli threat to cut the Gaza Strip’s internet connections.

Other targeted sites include those belonging to the Kadima party, the Bank of Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv Municipality. All of the websites continue to be shut down.

Most of the sites are simply unavailable, but others display pro-Palestinian images and messages. A message on one website read, “This attack is in response to the injustice against the Palestinian people.”

Both sides of the conflict are using social networking sites to influence public opinion as the death toll from the violence continues to rise. Sixty-five Palestinians – including at least 13 children – have been killed over the course of five days.

The Israeli government has fully embraced social networking sites – including Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and Instagram.

After taking out Hamas military leader Ahmed Jabari with a precision guided bomb, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) tweeted a warning to Hamas: “We recommend that no Hamas operatives, whether low level or senior leaders, show their faces above ground in the days ahead.”

The news about the Jabari assassination was announced on Twitter before it was announced to the media.

Palestinians have joined the Twitter war, too. In response to the IDF tweet, the Al-Qassam Brigades tweeted: “Our blessed hands will reach your leaders and soldiers wherever they are (You opened hell gates on yourselves).”

Guy Fawkes

Anonymous hack hundreds of Israeli websites, delete Foreign Ministry database in support of Gaza

Hacker group Anonymous has launched a massive attack named #OpIsrael on almost 700 Israeli websites, protesting against Operation Pillar of Defense in Gaza. Israeli media confirmed the group’s move.

The hackers reportedly took down websites ranging from high-profile governmental structures such as the Foreign Ministry to local tourism companies’ pages.

The biggest attack as of now has been the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s international development program, titled Mashav. Anonymous announced on Twitter they’ve hacked into the program’s database, with the website remaining inaccessible at the moment.

“There is [sic] so many defaced Israeli websites right now, that we just made a list of them,” Anonymous tweeted.

The hacktivists also took down the Israeli President’s official website and the blog of the country’s Defense Force, http://www.idfblog.com, posting the news on Twitter using their infamous #TANGO DOWN hashtag.

The Jerusalem Post has confirmed the group’s assault, including the attack on the Foreign Ministry’s website, as well as those of Kadima party, Bank of Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv Municipality. The latter is online as of now. Among other functions, it provides residents with directions to bomb shelters. Meanwhile, the majority of the web pages that were taken down were blank, but some showed pro-Palestinian images and messages, Jerusalem Post reported.

It was mentioned, however, that most of the 663 pages on the list were subdomains of the same site, and many proved to be still online and functioning properly.

Most of the sites were simply unavailable, but others displayed pro-Palestinian images and messages. One site whose front page was replaced with an image of a man wearing a Palestinian kaffiye, displayed a message reading: “This attack is in response to the Injustice against the Palestinian people.”

Overnight, the group claimed 9,000 websites were taken down, but the actual number proved to be fewer than that.

From the very beginning of the Israeli offensive, Anonymous has avidly supported the Palestinian people. OnWednesday, they said in a press statement, “For far too long, Anonymous has stood by with the rest of the world and watched in despair the barbaric, brutal and despicable treatment of the Palestinian people in the so called ‘Occupied Territories’ by the Israel Defense Force.”

Amid the conflict, which has already claimed at least 33 lives, 30 of them Palestinians, Anonymous also pledged to help those who are at the heart of the conflict: many Palestinians were left without electricity, and consequently, without internet access. The hackers gave instructions on their Twitter account for residents to get reconnected: “If you have friends in Gaza who still have phone, but need internet, give them these dial-up numbers and instructions: http://pastebin.com/6dYQruHu.”

Anonymous put together a “Gaza Care Package,” which contains instructions in Arabic and English to assist Palestinians in the event that the Israeli government cuts their internet connection. Plus, the package includes information on evading IDF surveillance, along with first aid information. The collective encouraged Palestinians to download and share the package with others.

Anonymous members also contacted Israeli forces directly. A tweet from an Anonymous account to an IDF spokesperson warned, “It would be wise of you to expect us”, while a statement on their webpage said, “Stop bombing Gaza. Millions of Israelis and Palestinians are lying awake, exposed and terrified.”

THE PEOPLE HAVE THE RIGHT TO ALTER!

Greetings from Anonymous,

It has come to our attention that conservative and pro-Israeli groups throughout the blogosphere have taken advantage of Operation Israel, attempting to solidify public opinion against Anonymous.

TheOtherMcCain.com posted an editorial this morning which stated the following:

“If you ever doubted that Anonymous was a terrorist organization, they have now removed all reason for doubt.”

The article only contained 55 words of original content by the site itself, the other 90 percent of the article was selected quotations by mainstream media sources.

Let us once again be perfectly clear:

Anonymous does not in any way support the use of violence. Anonymous is a world wide collective of individuals whose means pursue human rights, justice, and universal equality for the citizens of every nation. Pro-Israeli groups throughout the world have grown from a foundation of Israeli/US propaganda and lies.

They arbitrarily dismiss the apartheid system of racial segregation and oppression imposed by the Rothschild Israeli government on the Palestinian people. The fact of the matter is, in the eyes of the media, only the United States and it’s allies are capable of labeling another state or organization as a terrorists.

Throughout our campaign, we’ve been inundated with one response in particular; references to Hamas hiding in school buildings or using women and children as human shields. Selective memory seems to have given pro-Israeli organizations the ability to forget that in 2005 Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz appeared in court to defend the practice of using Palestinians as human shields in combat after a supreme court outlawed the practice, noting it violated International Law.

The reasons for Anonymous intervention through #OpIsrael should be abundantly clear:

What is happening in Palestine is oppression. They have no navy, no army, or air force. There is no war in Gaza. There is only the continuous application of military force by Israel in an attempt to push every last person out of the Palestinian state, despite international laws that make these efforts illegal.

This illegal expansion of territory by Israel in to the Palestinian state has been ongoing since Rothschild purchased founded The State Of Israel In 1948, making refugees of over 700,000 Palestinians. Today, Palestinians are not permitted to live in Israeli settlements, drive on Israeli roads or even travel in the “security” areas surrounding them. These Israeli only housing developments are being built on stolen land, even while being called illegal settlements by the International Court of Justice.

The violence inflicted upon the civilian residents of Gaza is well documented, despite the fact that Rothschild’s Israel has adamantly opposed intervention by human rights organizations and the IDF constantly blocks and harasses international journalists.

Despite these facts, Anonymous has not used any anti-Semitic language during our campaign. Nor have we vocalized any support for Palestinian military operations or resistance groups. Our goal was to protect the rights of Palestinian people who are threatened with silence as Israel has made attempts to shut down cell phone and internet service throughout Gaza.

We know what happens to victims of oppression when the lights go dark.

It is also worthy to note, that as of yesterday, members of Anonymous participating in #OpIsrael were making attempts to augment our Gaza Care Package for civilians in Tel Aviv by translating the same documents in to Hebrew in the event that they lose access to internet service as well. We do not racially or geographically differentiate between victims of violence or oppression anywhere in the world.

Both Palestinians and Israelis need to find common ground and end the violence that has already resulted in the deaths of innocent people, including children. Rothschild’s Israel’s advancement on Palestinian Territories and the racist oppression of Palestinian people needs to end.

We are not terrorists.

Governments that fund wars, practice deceit against their own citizens, condone corruption, and turn a blind eye to the deaths of innocent people are terrorists. The word terror does not belong to Israel or the United States. We will judge you by your actions.

Peace and Freedom to all,

#OpIsrael
#Anonymous

Anonymous Gaza Care Package: http://www.mediafire.com/?hpnne29xvx1ceuv
#OpIsrael Information and Tools: http://www.anonpaste.me/anonpaste2/index.php?052e585589d89b5d#V7ELmwHwFZ6gm+mv3/BH0M2bw035NxDE7qaf55tRIBY=

———————————

BY EMIL PROTALINSKI

When the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) this week began taking military action in the Gaza strip against Hamas (as the IDF announced on Twitter), Anonymous declared its own war as part of #OpIsrael.

Among the casualties are thousands of email addresses and passwords, hundreds of Israeli Web sites, government-owned as well as privately owned pages, as well as databases belonging to Bank Jerusalem and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

While the hacktivist group doesn’t appear to be anywhere near satisfied yet, the YourAnonNews account, which has over 686,000 followers, did just send out this message:

If that’s not a declaration of success, I don’t know what is.

There have so far been hundreds of takedowns and defacements of sites by Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks; one Pastebin trying to list them all includes 659 Web sites. Not all of them are still down, but some are, and others are still defaced.

Another AnonPaste includes 2,004 email addresses, the majority of which appear to have corresponding passwords, allegedly stolen from an MySQL database belonging to dirotmodiin.co.il, a site for finding real estate in Rothschild’s Israel.

Many of them are hosted on Israeli domains, but there are also the usual Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo accounts. Yet as already mentioned, we’re talking about more than just DDoS attacks that are overloading Web sites, such as tel-aviv.gov.il, the municipal site for the second most populous city in Israel (after Jerusalem).

There are also plenty of defacements, and, as of a few minutes ago, databases have also been wiped. While the Israeli government almost certainly has backups of the aforementioned databases, these attacks as well as the defacements show Anonymous isn’t just doing its usual spree of overloading target sites.

OpIsrael appears to have gotten multiple hackers involved who are interested in doing actual damage, or at least something that is slightly more permanent than just a 404.

Update at 8:20PM EST: The Twitter account is now claiming that over 9,000 sites have been taken down or defaced, but don’t be fooled: this is a meme reference.

Update at 9:00AM on November 17 – Anonymous is claiming to have taken down the Web sites for the President of the state of Israel and the IDF’s blog. At the time of writing, the former is still down but the latter is working just fine.

Update at 4:00PM on November 17: Anonymous is claiming to have taken down a few more sites; here are the ones that were down or defaced at the time of this update:

Nothing major, but this further shows Anonymous is clearly still at it.

A press release attempts to explain Anonymous’ motives behind the attacks:

Greetings World

For far too long, Anonymous has stood by with the rest of the world and watched in despair the barbaric, brutal and despicable treatment of the Palestinian people in the so called “Occupied Territories” by the Israel Defense Force. Like so many around the globe, we have felt helpless in the face of such implacable evil. And today’s insane attack and threatened invasion of Gaza was more of the same.

id78c0c77763ceb4fa0bfefe239947ad4_anonymous-gaza-israel-website.n

But when the Rothschild government of Israel publicly threatened to sever all Internet and other telecommunications into and out of Gaza they crossed a line in the sand. As the former dictator of Egypt Mubarack learned the hard way – we are ANONYMOUS and NO ONE shuts down the Internet on our watch.

To the IDF and Rothschild government of Israel we issue you this warning only once. Do NOT shut down the Internet into the “Occupied Territories”, and cease and desist from your terror upon the innocent people of Palestine or you will know the full and unbridled wrath of Anonymous.

And like all the other evil governments that have faced our rage, you will NOT survive it unscathed.

To the people of Gaza and the “Occupied Territories”, know that Anonymous stands with you in this fight. We will do everything in our power to hinder the evil forces of the Rothschild IDF arrayed against you.

We will use all our resources to make certain you stay connected to the Internet and remain able to transmit your experiences to the world.

As a start, we have put together the Anonymous Gaza Care Package – http://bit.ly/XH87C5 – which contains instructions in Arabic and English that can aid you in the event the Israel government makes good on it’s threat to attempt to sever your Internet connection.

It also contains useful information on evading IDF surveillance, and some basic first aid and other useful information. We will continue to expand and improve this document in the coming days, and we will transmit it to you by every means at our disposal. We encourage you to download this package, and to share it with your fellow Palestinians to the best of your ability.

We will be with you. No matter how dark it may seem, no matter how alone and abandoned you may feel – know that tens of thousands of us in Anonymous are with you and working tirelessly around the clock to bring you every aid and assistance that we can.