Nations have repeatedly threatened to treat cyberattacks the same as
military attacks, and respond in kind, but the first confirmed example
of this appears to have happened over the weekend, when Israel was
pounding buildings across the Gaza Strip.
One of the buildings destroyed by Israeli forces was claimed by
officials to be the the headquarters of Hamas cyber forces in Gaza, and they said the airstrike was a direct response to cyberattacks that were ongoing during the weekend flareup.
Israeli military spokesman Brig. Gen. Ronen Mantis said that Israel had
foiled the cyberattacks before destroying the building, and that they
believe that following the strike, Hamas has “no cyber operational
capabilities.”
Analysts expressed concern about the idea of “bomb-back” responses to
cyberattacks becoming the norm, saying that in particular the case
Israel gives, where they’d already foiled the attack, they didn’t see
much point in such a strike.
In a First, Israel Presents Gaza Airstrike as Retaliation for Cyberattack
Claims building destroyed housed Hamas cyber forces
Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.
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