Power outages across Israel; electric company: ‘Unequivocally not cyberattack’
Electric company says blackouts caused by a ‘malfunction in power production units’
Power outages were reported across Israel during the early hours of Friday morning.
The Israel Electric Corporation said the blackouts were caused by “a malfunction in power production units,” and that power would return to affected areas shortly.
The company’s website and telephone hotline also went down for a short time, possibly due to an overload as Israelis sought to find out what the problem was.
Outages were reported shortly before 1 a.m. in Jerusalem, Ashdod, Herzliya, the Tel Aviv suburbs of Ramat Gan, Givatayim and Rishon Lezion, and other areas across the country, the Ynet news site reported. Traffic lights and street lights stopped working in some areas.
Video posted online by the Kan public broadcaster showed a Jerusalem neighborhood shrouded in darkness.
תיעוד מהחושך בשכונה בירושלים עקב הפסקת החשמל@ittaishick pic.twitter.com/0M6whTsjSy
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) October 29, 2020
Army Radio reported on Friday that the electric company said the outages were “unequivocally” not a cyberattack.
Oren Hellman, senior vice president at Israel Electric Corporation, expanded in an interview with the Kan public broadcaster on Friday morning.
“It was not a cyber incident but a technical glitch. A short on a key line as a result of moisture,” Hellman said.
The National Cyber Security Authority also said that the power cuts were not the result of a cyberattack.
