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    Anonymous takes sides in Gaza conflict, launches offensive against Israeli websites

    Anonymous takes sides in Gaza conflict, launches offensive against Israeli websites

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    Anonymous Israel
    Anonymous Israel

    Hacker group Anonymous is claiming to have successfully knocked offline and in some cases erased a number of prominent Israeli websites. The comprehensive attack, dubbed operation "OpIsrael," comes in direct retaliation to threats from Israel's government that it may shutter internet access to and from Gaza as violence between its Israel Defence Force (IDF) and Hamas continues to escalate. "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 Defence Force," reads a statement from the group. "But when the government of Israel publicly threatened to sever all Internet and other telecommunications into and out of Gaza they crossed a line in the sand."

    A document publicly made available on Pastebin lists well over 600 URLs that the group has reportedly targeted, and The Verge can confirm that many of the specified sites are currently unavailable. Anonymous also claims to have deleted databases belonging to both Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Bank of Jerusalem — the latter remains unreachable though the Ministry's site appears to be functioning normally.