The websites of Israel ’s stock exchange and national airline, El Al, were down around 10 am Monday, apparently as result of yet another cyber attack by pro-Palestinian hackers.

The Saudi hacker who initiated the recent wave of online attacks on Israeli sites informed Ynet earlier of the planned attack, which he said was to be carried out by a group of pro-Palestinian hackers referring to themselves as “Nightmare.”

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While El Al’s website would not load at all, the stock exchange was only presenting trade figures, without the possibility to perform any other action. Stock market officials said trading is going on as usual, as the computer system that manages it is separate from the website.





El Al website on Monday

Meanwhile, the Israeli-Arab cyber war continues to escalate. Pro-Israeli hacker Hannibal, who claims that he is a “Jew who lives somewhere in the world,” published early Monday the Facebook account details of some 20,000 Arab users. He also claimed to possess information that can be used to breach the bank accounts of some 10 million people in Iran and Saudi Arabia, vowing to cause billions of dollars in damage.

Ynet looked into Hannibal’s claims and confirmed that the details he published indeed allow for the unauthorized use of Facebook accounts.

Elsewhere, Hamas ’ spokesman urged pro-Palestinian hackers worldwide to escalate their cyber attacks on Israeli targets. The Bloomberg news service reported that Sami Abu Zuhri stated that "penetrating Israeli websites means opening a new field of resistance and the beginning of an electronic war against Israeli occupation."

Thus far, the credit card information of more than 20,000 Israelis was published online. In response, pro-Israel hackers publicized the credit information of hundreds of Arabs.

A hacker known as Yoni who presented himself as the leader of a group of Israeli hackers wrote on Ynet that “we do not operate against any certain nationality, and any person who operates against the group’s principles, regardless of religion, creed or gender, will be harmed. We, as a group, regret the harm done to innocents and aim to avoid it as much as is possible, yet in this war it’s a necessary move and we have no choice but to do it.”

Tani Goldstein contributed to the report

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