Ramallah - Sona El Deek
Minister of communication in the PA Ramallah - Sona El Deek Minister of communication and information technology in the Palestinian Authority Mashhour Abu Dokka confirmed to Arabstoday that the country has been experiencing severe cyber-attacks leading to technical damage in internet networks all over Palestine since Tuesday morning. The most likely culprits are said to be Jewish groups and institutions, incensed by UNESCO admitting Palestine as a full member. Abu Dokka said that Palestinian IP addresses were targeted by such groups, cutting Palestine’s internet connections and preventing them from tracking online news. However, locally hosted websites were not affected. He also confirmed that technicians from the Palestinian Group for Communication and ministry of communication were resisting the attacks in a continuous effort to stop interference in coordinating with their counterparts in other countries. The minister added that Gaza is more vulnerable to electronic cyber-attacks than the West Bank. The government is meant to be consulting with an international company to stop the attacks. Gaza, the West Bank and many other territories in the state lost their internet connections compelling Palestine Telecom "in Tall" to apologise to their customers, citing a technical error. The company stated: "Technical staff have been working to solve this problem and managed to reach a partial solution. The networks are now under control and are being observed to avoid repetition of similar cutoffs. Although the problem was eventually controlled, every alternative was provided in accordance with the global standards to guarantee that it won’t happen again."