By Worthy News’ Johan Th. Bos and Stefan J. Bos
JERUSALEM/THE HAGUE/AMSTERDAM (Worthy News) – While antisemitic violence rocked Amsterdam, injuring dozens, Israel’s embassy in The Hague endured electronic attacks, shutting down its phone network, Worthy News learned Saturday.
The hacker group Fatimion Cyber Team (FCT) claimed to have “shut down” the Israeli embassy in The Hague on Friday. Reporters noticed that the embassy had not been easily accessible by phone for quite some time.
FCT had earlier urged its supporters through its channel on social media platform Telegram to carry out ‘electronic attacks’ on the telephone lines of the Israeli embassy.
“Thousands of messages and calls are sent to the numbers to confuse them with incoming calls from citizens,” the attackers said.
Telegram channel then shared different phone numbers used by the embassy. A new emergency number used by the embassy was also immediately placed in the Telegram channel and “digitally bombed,” observers said.
Fatimion Cyber Team has been active since August last year, according to their social media posts cited by investigative journalists.
They attack mainly “Zionist targets,” especially Israeli websites that the group shut down.
ISRAELI OIL GIANT
One of the most recent victims was reportedly Delek, an Israeli oil giant and Israeli telecom provider Cellcom.
FCT also regularly hacks websites and company accounts, say sources familiar with their operation.
The attacks against Israel’s embassy in the Netherlands came after some 2,000 Israeli soccer fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv faced antisemitic attacks that shocked the Netherlands.
Earlier, a group of pro-Palestinian protesters condemned authorities for allowing Israel to participate in the Europa League “given the situation in the Middle East.”
While a protest was banned at Amsterdam’s Johan Cruyff ArenA, it was allowed about a kilometer (0.6 miles) away on the Anton de Komplein.
In the days before the game, there were several confrontations. The Palestinian Authority said Israeli soccer “provoked” the Netherlands’ worst antisemitic incidents since World War.
PALESTINIAN FLAGS
Critics said Israeli soccer fans “took Palestinian flags from houses and chanted slogans related to the war.”
The Palestinian Authority claimed Israelis had “provoked” the Netherlands’ worst antisemitic attacks since World War Two.
Many Israeli soccer fans arrived in the Netherlands from a nation still mourning the 1,200 people killed by Hamas in Israel on October 7, last year.
“I think the Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters thought they would be welcome in Amsterdam because many Jews are living there,” said Dutch television commentator Johan Derksen. Instead, they met antisemites, he explained.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu noted that Jews were hunted on the eve of the 86th anniversary of the Kristall Nacht, the Night of Broken Glass with Germany Nazis and their allies attacked Jews throughout Germany.
“An attack on Jews because they are Jewish is once again happening on European soil,” he added.
Copyright 1999-2024 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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