Hackers paralyse offical Palestinian news agency website

Hackers yesterday knocked out the Internet website of the official Palestinian news agency, Wafa.

Palestinian experts said hackers broke into Palnet, the main server in the West Bank and Gaza, and blocked the Wafa site.

Inside Palestinian headquarters in the West Bank and Gaza, people trying to access the Wafa site saw 137 pictures of Israelis killed during 10 months of fighting with the Palestinians instead.

A title in Hebrew ran across the top of the page reading, ‘‘Crimes committed by the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian leaders’’. Small images of memorial candles separated the pictures.

Outside Palestinian headquarters, Internet surfers looking for the Wafa page got screens saying that the site was unavailable.

Wafa director Ziad Abdel Fatah accused Israeli hackers of responsibility.

He said: ‘‘This is part of the war declared against the Palestinian people and the Palestine National Authority.’’

In a statement, he called it ‘‘a very dangerous act and a violation of freedom of the media’’.

The Wafa site was partially restored, but no current news was available late yesterday. Officials said Wafa distributed its news releases by fax and electronic mail today.

Since the current Palestinian-Israeli conflict began on September 28, websites from both sides have come under attack from hackers.

Sites of the Israeli foreign ministry, army and prime minister’s office have been disabled for up to a day, and other Palestinian sites have been shut down briefly.

An unofficial site from the militant Hamas was replaced with a pornography link for a day.