Israeli TV Eurovision Webcast Hacked With Fake Missile Alert

The website streaming the Eurovision semi-finals in Israel was hacked Tuesday evening to show warnings of a missile strike and images of blasts in the host city of Tel Aviv, The Guardian reported Wednesday.

The KAN’s television stations were interrupted just as the competition’s first round was beginning – with a fake alert from the Israeli army telling of an impending attack, the report said.

Messages included: “Risk of Missile Attack, Please Take Shelter” and “Israel is NOT Safe. You Will See!” appeared on the screen, the newspaper reported. Animated satellite footage showed explosions in the coastal city.

The chief executive of KAN, Eldad Koblenz, told Israeli Army Radio: “We know that at a certain stage there was an attempt, apparently by Hamas, to commandeer our digital broadcast. But I am happy to say that within a few minutes we managed to assume control over this phenomenon.”

Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, did comment on the report, The Guardian reported. It has not made threats of violence against Eurovision.

During recent fighting between Israel and Hamas and other militants in which more than 600 missiles were fired at Israel, the newspaper reported, Israel’s military said it had thwarted Hamas’s “offensive cyber capabilities.” In addition, the report said, Israel claimed it had used technology to block efforts to “harm the Israeli cyber realm” but admitted it also bombed the building used by the group’s hacking unit.

Organisers of this year’s Eurovision have prepared for efforts to disrupt the competition, The Guardian reported, and Israel said it would block activists who wanted to “disturb” the event from taking place in the country.

So far, at least two musicians scheduled to perform have pulled out, the report said, although none of the 41 contestants has withdrawn.

The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign, which accuses Israel of exploiting the event to “whitewash” its treatment of Palestinians, has also demanded Madonna cancel her performance at Saturday’s finale, the newspaper reported.

In response, Madonna said she would “never stop playing music to suit someone’s political agenda,” the report said.

– WN.com, Jack Durschlag