Pro-Hamas hackers disrupt North American airports

A group calling itself “Turkish hacker Cyber Islam” hacked into terminal communication systems at multiple North American airports on Tuesday, using them to broadcast pro-Hamas propaganda.

The cyber attacks reportedly took place at Harrisburg International Airport in Pennsylvania, Kelowna International Airport and Victoria International Airport in the Canadian province of British Columbia and at Windsor International Airport in Ontario.

Video documentation posted by passengers included a recorded message on the public address system with a female voice saying “Free, free Palestine” and cursing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump.

Flight information screens displayed pictures of Hamas terrorists killed by Israel, including Mohammed Deif, Abu Obeida, Ismail Haniyah and Yahya Sinwar, among other images, along with the message: “ISRAEL LOST THE WAR, HAMAS WON THE WAR HONORABLY” and “You are a pig, Donald Trump.” A grotesque caricature of Netanyahu was displayed along with a message cursing the Israeli leader.

CTV News reported that two flights—one inbound and one outbound—were delayed at Kelowna. Fox News reported that a Delta flight boarding at Harrisburg at the time of the incident was searched out of an abundance of caution

Canadian and American authorities are investigating the incidents, which the airports said did not contain any threats directed at airlines, passengers or employees.

“We have a cybersecurity response plan. And so, we activated that yesterday evening. We were able to decouple, disconnect, those messages very, very quickly,” CTV News quoted Kelowna airport CEO Sam Samaddar as saying. “And then, of course, lead through an investigation in terms of what had happened. And so, we are focused on that.”