Israeli websites under cyberattack as Iran marks the anti-Israel fest, ‘Quds Day’

Several Israeli websites found themselves under cyberattack on Friday afternoon, coinciding with the Iranian anti-Israel hate festival known as “Quds Day.” 

A group of hackers identified as “Anonymous Sudan” has taken responsibility for targeting the websites of Israeli banks, phone providers, the post office, the electricity company and the red alert warning app. Israeli media reported that some of the sites have collapsed and were offline for a short time. 

The hackers wrote on their Telegram account: “We still have two hours before the sunset prayer, during which we will attack everything in Israel.”

The same group was reportedly behind another cyberattack earlier this month, which targeted the websites of Israeli universities and media outlets such as the Kan 11 broadcaster, the Jerusalem Post and Channel 12 news. 

The recent cyberattack occurred at the culmination of Iran’s Quds Day (“Jerusalem Day”) celebration, an annual anti-Israel festival observed on the last Friday of Ramadan. The Islamic Republic established the day in 1979 as a day of protest, to express support for the Palestinian people and to oppose Israel’s existence. 

The Iranian Foreign Ministry tweeted: “The waning existence of Israel is no longer able to deceive the world. No conspiracy will save the Zionist regime. Quds belongs to Palestinians.”

Thousands took to the streets in major cities in Iran to display their hatred towards the Jewish state. They chanted “death to Israel” and “death to America” and burned the two countries’ flags in a rally in Tehran. 

Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said in a speech in the Iranian capital: “The Palestinians are actively confronting Israeli aggression from Gaza to the heart of Tel Aviv. … Yesterday they (Palestinians) were fighting with stones, and now they hit (Israel) with rockets.” 

Similar events were held in Shiite communities in Lebanon and Syria, as well as in Judea and Samaria. 

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah delivered remarks addressing the escalation on Israel’s northern border for the first time, which saw rockets fired from Lebanon and Syria into northern Israel. Nasrallah mocked Israel’s response to the heaviest rocket barrage Lebanon has inflicted upon Israel since the 2006 war last week. 

Nasrallah claimed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “running away from responsibility” and that he “lied to his people” when he said that Israel attacked Hezbollah targets. 

“All they attacked were banana plantations and irrigation systems,” he said. “One can clearly see that Israel hasn’t attacked any infrastructure. They attacked bananas in southern Lebanon.”