Israel hackers say they targeted six Iranian websites

Israeli hackers said Thursday they had targeted six Iranian websites, the latest instalment in an ongoing cyber-war between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli computer buffs, dpa reported.

The hackers, who call themselves "the IDF Team," said their actions were in response to cyber attacks which immobilized five Israeli websites on Wednesday, the Jerusalem Post daily reported.

They said they brought down the website of Press TV, the Iranian regime's English-language channel, and two websites belonging to the Ministry of Health and Medical Education.

However, the Press TV website appeared to be functioning normally on Thursday afternoon.

Three additional Iranian sites were also hacked and their servers altered to display an Israeli flag and anti-Arab text in English, the Post reported.

The cyber war began at the beginning of the month, when a hacker calling himself "OxOmar" published tens of thousands of Israeli credit card numbers on the internet.

He said he was then joined by a group calling itself Nightmare, and went on to paralyze several Israeli websites, including that of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and Israel's El-Al International Airlines.

Pro-Israel hackers, for their part, published the login details of 20,000 Arab Facebook users, and said they had taken down websites in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

On Tuesday, hackers immobilized the websites of two Israeli hospitals, by launching distributed denial of service (DDOS), and also targeted the Hebrew-language website of the Ha'aretz daily, the Dan Bus Company, and the Israel Festival.