Power Outages Affect Third of Israel’s Population

World

October 31st, 11:01am

Tel Aviv - Asharq Al-Awsat

A worker at the site of an electricity plant near the West Bank town of Jenin on July 10, 2017. (Getty Images)

Hours after the Israeli army concluded military exercises, power outages were reported all over Israel on Friday, affecting a third of the population. The Electric Corporation said that the blackouts were caused by a major technical defect, stressing that it was not a cyberattack. The army military exercises included training for cyber wars scenarios, where vital facilities in Israel were hit, and methods on initiating the fastest response to them. Outages were reported in Tel Aviv suburbs and the southern areas, including Ashdod, Herzliya, the Tel Aviv suburbs of Ramat Gan, Givatayim and Rishon Lezion, and other areas. The Corporation said the blackouts were caused by “a malfunction in power production units,” announcing that the current will be back shortly, but many citizens reported that the electricity was cut off continuously for about an hour. At a certain point, the electric company's website stopped working, telephone lines collapsed, and traffic and street lights stopped working in some areas. The statement stressed that the private power station in Beer Tuvia stopped working which led to a chain reaction in other surrounding stations. However, security sources did not rule out the possibility of a cyberattack from hostile parties. They told Ynet and Channel 12 that it could be a cyberattack as power stations collapsed one after the other. They reported that a third of the country's population were without electricity in the middle of the night, a time when usually there is no high consumption of electricity, or pressure on any power plant, which indicates the possibility of a cyberattack. Israeli security reports confirmed last month a cyber war between Israel and Iran, in which the two sides exchanged attacks. During the past months, Iran has targeted Israeli water networks, while Israel attacked the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas and disrupted its operation.

from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2597206/power-outages-affect-third-israel%E2%80%99s-population