Israeli government websites crashed on Tuesday following an alleged cyber attack.
Several government websites were inaccessible including sites for the Ministries of Health, Interior, and the Foreign Ministry. The sites crashed due to a cyber attack, sources told Channel 11 News and Haaretz.
Israeli’s National Cyber Directorate declared a state of emergency while the attack is being investigated, Haaretz reported. The strike was the largest cyber attack ever carried out against Israel, a senior defense official claimed to Haaretz.
Israeli Communications Minister Yoaz Hendel said his office is dealing with the issue.
The suspected attack came at roughly the same time that the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed, in a statement to Iranian media, that authorities foiled an operation by the Mossad to disrupt Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility. The claim could not be immediately verified.
The news comes after the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed responsibility for a ballistic missile attack on Erbil, Iraq, on Saturday. Missiles struck near the U.S. consulate in that city, although the IRGC said it was targeting Israeli “strategic centers.”
The missile attack came days after two IRGC officers were killed in an alleged Israeli air strike in Syria.
The news comes while the U.S. and other nations attempt to reenter the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the Obama administration’s 2015 deal to regulate Iran’s nuclear program. Former President Trump exited the deal in 2018.
Negotiators were reportedly close to finalizing a deal earlier this month. However, talks stalled after Russia demanded the protection of its trade with Iran from U.S. sanctions that were implemented after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.