A group of hackers has claimed responsibility for a cyber attack that they say was the reason behind major power failures in several cities across Israeli-occupied territories on Thursday.

Tel Aviv, April 28 (RHC)-- The Anonymous Sudan hacker group, which has waged several cyber attacks against various Israeli websites in the past few weeks, announced on Thursday it was responsible for the recent power outages.  In a post on its Telegram channel, the group said: “The electric attack was just for fun.  We’ll show you more.”

It also warned of more attacks, saying: “Israel, we are still playing with you ... soon you will be without the internet.  We are working to down the internet in Israel like electricity.”

The power cuts caused traffic jams in Tel Aviv while also affecting the Knesset and government ministries, Israeli media reported.  Meanwhile, Israel’s Electric Company claimed that a malfunction at Haifa power plant caused power cuts.   “Due to a glitch in one of the Haifa power plants, power outages are being felt in a number of areas around the country,” a spokesperson of the company claimed, denying cyber attacks.

This is while various Israeli institutions have been targeted with increasing cyber attacks lately, part of which was carried out by the named Sudanese group.

A group of Sudanese hackers calling itself Anonymous Sudan has knocked offline the websites of a major airport and the largest supplier of electrical power across the Israeli-occupied territories.   The group claimed Wednesday to have hacked Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s website, though it may have been referring to his official page. According to Israeli media, the premier’s page was filled with Quran verses, notes in Persian, and a clip containing texts in Bengali.

The group also said it had targeted Israeli news outlets, government websites and political web pages. The websites of Israeli Ports Company and Haifa Port were among those hacked. Israeli media reported that the cyber attack has disabled these websites, but apparently, no information was stolen from them.

Wednesday’s cyber attacks came two days after Anonymous Sudan targeted the websites of the Israeli spy agency Mossad, the so-called internal security service Shin Bet, and several other companies across the occupied territories.

The Hebrew-language Maariv daily newspaper reported on Monday that various Israeli websites were knocked offline due to a widespread cyber attack by the Sudanese group.

A group of Sudanese hackers target the website of the Israeli Mossad spy agency, the so-called National Insurance Institute and several other Israeli companies in a major cyber attack.  Among those targeted were television, communication companies, banks, service companies, universities, newspapers, and Israel’s water company.

Anonymous Sudan also took down the websites of Ben Gurion International Airport and Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) on Saturday, according to Hebrew-language media outlets.

Another hacker group, known as “Sharp Boys” said on Wednesday it had targeted the Atid institutions, stealing the data of 500,000 users.  The hacker group further claimed that it had obtained the personal information of Israelis, including identification documents of people who served in the military and police forces of the occupying regime.

An Indonesian hacker group carried out a massive cyber attack against a number of Israeli websites last week, including those of the ministries of foreign affairs, education and health.

The Jerusalem Post newspaper reported that the group, calling itself VulzSecTeam, announced on April 17 that it had managed to break into the websites of the Israeli education, health and foreign ministries, as well as Israel police and bus and train companies in recent days, and took them down.