Earlier this month, the Israeli officials cleared for release that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) bombed Hamas hackers in a retaliatory strike following an attempted cyber attack.
The IDF’s official statement related that Israeli forces “thwarted an attempted Hamas cyber offensive against Israeli targets.” According to the statement, following Israel’s “successful cyber defensive operation,” Israeli jets were dispatched to eliminate the hackers and their headquarters. “HamasCyberHQ.exe has been removed,” concluded the IDF spokesman tweet.
Hamas, the Gaza-based terror group that rules the Palestinian enclave, has been attempting to diversify its attacks against Israel for some time. While the Hamas’s dreaded terror tunnels are the most well-known example of the organization’s asymmetric repertoire, the list included other more sensational methods such as the more recent Frogman unit, set up with the goal of infiltrating Israel from the sea. The group’s cyber warfare unit was probably set up with the expectation of opening an additional yet distinct front with Israel. There is little doubt Hamas was surprised when, instead of responding to the unit’s attacks in the cyber-sphere alone, the IDF sent the airforce after them.
As many observers have pointed out, this incident was an important milestone in the history of cyberware. It is likely the first instance in which the “kinetic” assets of a country responded to a cyber attack. It highlights how the separation between the digital and the real-world spheres in conflict is in fact an arbitrary distinction. Given the digitally-based infrastructure of the modern world, digital attacks can be just as damaging as (if not more than) conventional ones. Perhaps a president responding to cyber warfare with real-world retaliation is a bit of a much- needed deterrent against cyber attacks.
