Israel Neutralizes Cyber Attack by Blowing Up Building with Jihadist Hackers

As shown in a video^[1] tweeted by IDF, the
building in the Gaza Strip, which Israeli fighter drones have now
destroyed, was reportedly the headquarters for Palestinian Hamas
military intelligence, from where a cyber unit of jihadist hackers
was allegedly trying to penetrate Israel’s cyberspace.

“We thwarted an attempted Hamas cyber offensive against Israeli
targets. Following our successful cyber defensive operation, we
targeted a building where the Hamas cyber operatives work.
HamasCyberHQ.exe has been removed,” said the Israeli
Defence Forces on Twitter.
^[2]

However, the Israel Defense Force has not shared any information
about the attempted cyber attack by the Hamas group, saying it
would reveal the country’s cyber capabilities.

According to Judah Ari Gross of Times of
Israel^[3], the commander of the
IDF’s Cyber Division said, “We were a step ahead of them the whole
time,” and “this was one of the first times where Israeli soldiers
had to fend off a cyber attack while also fighting a physical
battle.”

However, it’s not the first time when a country retaliates to a
cyberattack with a physical attack. In 2015-16, the U.S. military
reportedly killed two ISIS hackers—Siful Haque
Sujan^[4] and Junaid
Hussain^[5] of Team Poison hacking
group—using drone strikes in Syria.

The commander did not reveal the name of the target, but did say
that the cyber attack by Hamas was aimed at “harming the way of
life of Israeli citizens.”

The tension between Israel and Hamas has increased over the last
year, with the latest conflict began on Friday after Hamas
militants launched at least 600 rockets and mortars at Israel and
shot two Israeli soldiers.
In retaliation to the violence by Hamas, the Israel military has
carried out their own strikes on what it claimed were hundreds of
Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets in the coastal enclave.

So far, at least 27 Palestinians and 4 Israeli civilians have
been killed, and over 100 of them have been injured.

The IDF said its airstrike targeted and killed Hamed Ahmed Abed
Khudri, who the Israel military reportedly accused of funding the
Hamas rocket fire attacks by transferring money from Iran to armed
factions in Gaza.

“Transferring Iranian money to Hamas and the PIJ [Palestinian
Islamic Jihad] doesn’t make you a businessman. It makes you a
terrorist,” IDF wrote in a tweet that included an image of a Toyota
car in flames.

In a new development, Israel has stopped its air strikes on the
Palestinian territory and lifted all protective restrictions
imposed near the Gaza area, after Palestinian officials offered a
conditional ceasefire
agreement with Israel to end the violence.
^[6]