Several hacker groups have joined in on the Israel-Hamas conflict escalation that started over the weekend after the Palestinian militant group launched a major attack.

Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel out of Gaza, firing thousands of rockets and sending its fighters to the southern part of the country. In response, Israel declared war on Hamas and started to retaliate. Hundreds have been killed and thousands have been wounded on both sides as a result of the conflict escalation. 

In addition to the state-sponsored actors that have likely ramped up their cyber efforts behind the scenes, known hacktivist groups supporting both sides have intensified their cyberattacks. 

According to a timeline created by cybersecurity consultant and OSINT enthusiast Julian Botham, the first hacktivist attacks were launched against Israel by Anonymous Sudan less than one hour after the first rockets were fired by Hamas. The group targeted emergency warning systems, claiming to have taken down alerting applications in Israel.

The Jerusalem Post, the largest English-language daily newspaper in Israel, was also targeted by Anonymous Sudan. 

A pro-Hamas group called Cyber Av3ngers targeted the Israel Independent System Operator (Noga), a power grid organization, claiming to have compromised its network and shut down its website. The group also targeted the Israel Electric Corporation, the largest supplier of electrical power in Israel and the Palestinian territories, as well as a power plant. 

The notorious pro-Russian group Killnet has launched attacks against Israeli government websites.

A Palestinian hacker gang named Ghosts of Palestine has invited hackers from around the world to attack private and public infrastructure in Israel and the United States. A group called Libyan Ghosts has started defacing small Israeli websites in support of Hamas.  

In most cases, these hacktivists have used distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks to cause disruption. Some of them claimed to have caused significant disruption to their targets, but it’s not uncommon for hacktivists to exaggerate their claims. For instance, claims by Iran-linked…