Anonymous hackers threaten "crusade" against Israeli websites

The world-wide internet hacker network ‘Anonymous’ has released a video threatening to launch a cyber war against Israel, which it accuses of committing "crimes against humanity". The video was posted on the website ‘YouTube’. "For too long, we have tolerated your crimes against humanity and allowed your sins to go unpunished," a computer-generated voice says on the video. "You claim to be democratic, yet in reality, this is far from the truth. In fact, your only goal is to better the lives of a select few while carelessly trampling the liberties of the masses."

The video also makes reference to the possibility of an Israeli strike on Iran, claiming that Israel has “taken steps to ensure a nuclear holocaust,” and that it will not be allowed “to attack a sovereign country based upon a campaign of lies.” The voice says: "Our crusade against your reign of terror shall commence in three steps. Step one will be initiated after the release of this video and will be comprised of systematically removing you from the internet. Step two will be later disclosed and is already in initiation. And as for step 3, well think of this one as a present from Anonymous to you. We will not stop until the police state becomes a free state."

Members of the Anonymous ring, which is a loosely-connected group of hackers operating world-wide, recently announced attacks against the youth movement of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s party One Russia and against the Boston police, among others. Palestinian supporters and Israel loyalists have been battling in cyber space for several months. In January, a Saudi hacker who called himself 0xOmar published tens of thousands of Israeli credit card numbers on the internet. And in June last year, Anonymous threatened to shut down the website of the Israeli Knesset. "This is the beginning of cyber war against Israel, you are not safe anymore," 0xOmar said in an online post, urging hackers from across the Arab and Muslim world to target the websites of the Jewish state.