Hackers sympathetic to Hamas wage an online guerilla war of unknown magnitude and consequences so far.
Hackers aligned with Hamas are actively engaging in cyberwarfare to escalate the Israel-Gaza conflict. These hackers, reportedly with affiliations to countries like Iran and Russia, have conducted a series of cyberattacks and online campaigns against Israel in the past week, with some possibly occurring in the lead-up to the October 7th Hamas strike. On platforms like Telegram, hacker groups claimed responsibility for compromising various targets, including Israeli websites, the electric grid, a rocket alert app, and the Iron Dome missile defense system. Notably, even The Jerusalem Post, an Israeli newspaper, acknowledged a temporary takedown due to these cyberattacks. Furthermore, a few days ago hackers published a file supposed to contain all personal info of millions of Israeli voters from 2020, which is believed to have been stolen as part of a cyber assault on the Elector election management application in 2021. In total, around 40 different groups have targeted over 80 Israeli sites, but the exact extent of the damage remains uncertain.
These online campaigns are a bid to bolster the physical conflict with a digital offensive, mirroring tactics employed by Russia and sympathetic hacktivists during the early days of the Ukraine conflict. This “online support”, analogous to the “air support” given by the Air Force to ground troops, might very well change the strategic planning of both sides. However, a key difference between Gaza and Russia is that these attacks on Gaza likely originate from outside the region due to the limited internet connectivity within Gaza, further exacerbated by Israeli power cuts and bombing strikes.
