JERUSALEM: Hackers claiming to be from the Gaza Strip defaced the website of the Israel Fire and Rescue services, posting a message saying "Death to Israel," a spokesman told AFP on Friday.
Fire service spokesman Yoram Levy said that attackers who identified themselves as the "Gaza Hackers Team" struck its website late on Thursday and posted a picture of Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon with footprints over his face.
"There was some writing in Arabic and a picture of Danny Ayalon," Levy said, adding that by Friday morning the site was largely back to normal."
Last week, Ayalon said Israel would respond to cyber-attacks in the same way it responds to violent "terrorist" acts, by striking back with force against hackers who threaten the Jewish state.
His remarks came after hackers claiming to be from Saudi Arabia published details of tens of thousands of Israeli-owned credit cards online.
Earlier this week, Ayalon said "Muslim extremists" had hacked his website putting it briefly offline.
Cyber activists have been locked in tit-for-tat hacking attacks since January 3 when a Saudi hacker called 0xOmar said he had posted details of 400,000 Israeli-owned cards online.
Three days later, he said he had published another 11,000 card details but it turned out to be malware that infected anyone who downloaded the information.
Israel’s main credit card companies said about 20,000 valid cards had been affected.
Earlier this week, an Israeli hacker "0xOmer" launched a counter-attack and posted details of 217 Saudi cards online, prompting another attack by the Saudi hacker.
