Last week the hacking group Anonymous launched a cyber-attack campaign dubbed #OpIsrael replacing Israeli homepage messages with anti-Israel slogans and causing massive disruption to government, academic and private sites. The attach reached its peak on Sunday with high-profile government systems such as the Foreign Ministry, the Bank of Jerusalem, the Israeli Occupation Ministry, the IOF blog and the Israeli President's official website all being hacked. Israeli finance minister Yuval Steinitz said the government was now waging war on "a second front of cyber attacks against Israel." Haaretz newspaper also said almost 19,000 Israeli Facebook accounts had been attacked by hackers affiliated with Anonymous.
The hackers, who stand for "human rights, justice, and universal equality for the citizens of every nation", started their #OpIsrael campaign because of a threat by Israel to sever telecommunications in and out of Gaza. Hackers from across the Middle East (Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco, Palestine) and also from Indonesia, The United States, France, Spain and Britain all joined together in this campaign to show solidarity with Palestine.
A message hosted on the website Anonpaste (an alternative to Pastebin used by the hacktivist collective) explained: "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." Their video addressing the Israeli government further explains their aims and grievances.