Hacking attack on Israeli Eurovision webcast warned Tel Aviv residents to seek shelter

Kan downplayed the hacking incident, saying that it was brief, happened only once, and did not even reach many viewers.

By World Israel News Staff 

Israeli public broadcaster Kan’s webcast of the Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv on Tuesday night was briefly interrupted when viewers instead were greeted with a fake IDF logo and warning of an imminent missile attack.

The fake alert told viewers within 1.2 kilometers of the contest’s venue to seek shelter from an imminent rocket attack. Then, animated images were shown of explosions in the Israeli city where the semi-final round of the event was taking place.

Kan accused the Hamas terrorist group of carrying out the hacking attack. It did not affect Kan’s television transmission of the event.

Forty-one countries are taking part in the competition.

Kan downplayed the hacking incident, saying that it was brief, happened only once, and did not even reach many viewers.

“We believe the messages were not distributed to many people,” said the public broadcaster’s statement.

“The EBU [European Broadcasting Union] and Kan view cybersecurity with utmost importance, and the matter is being investigated,” the statement continued.

Hamas has not commented.

Anti-Israel activists launched a campaign to pressure performers into boycotting the annual event. Israel earned the right to host this year’s competition by virtue of the 2018 victory of its representative Netta Barzilai.

The contest also coincides with Hamas protests marking  Nakba Day – ‘Day of Catastrophe’ – the anniversary of the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 and the transfer last year of the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.