The Israel Electric Corporation on Thursday was working to fix a malfunction at its Haifa power station that caused intermittent power cuts in several areas around the country.

Outages were reported in parts of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Bnei Brak, Lod, Rehovot, Tiberias, the Lower Galilee and elsewhere.

The state-owned utility denied that the outages were the result of a cyberattack, contradicting claims by a hacker group that it was behind the power interruptions.

The electricity cuts, many of which lasted a few minutes, also affected the Knesset and government ministries.

In Tel Aviv, malfunctioning traffic lights at the intersection of Begin and Harekevet roads caused traffic jams in the center of the city, police said.

The Israel Electric Corporation said power had already been restored in some places and would soon be restored to the rest of the affected areas.