Hackers ‘break into’ Iranian TV after country’s Supreme Leader threatens ‘all out war’ with US
Pro-Israel hackers have infiltrated Iranian state TV, calling for an uprising against supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, it has been claimed.
Footage circulating on Telegram shows a screen inside what appears to be a home, displaying chaos on the streets of Iran.
Women in the video are seen removing the mandatory hijab and chopping off their hair using a pair of scissors.
The footage was of scenes from the ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ uprising that engulfed Iran after the killing of 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman Mahsa Jina Amini in 2022 while in police custody.
Another image of a broadcast shows the message, ‘Rise up! This is your moment. Go out into the streets. Take control of your future.’
Iran blamed Israel for hacking the TV station, warning viewers that this was ‘due to cyberattacks carried out by the Zionist enemy that is disrupting the satellite transmission.’
The Hamshahri newspaper shared the video of the brief disruption, saying that ‘hackers infiltrated state television and broadcast a call asking people to take to the streets.’
Jonathan Harounoff, Israel’s spokesperson for the United Nations, posted the video on X, saying: ‘Happening now. Iranian state TV has been hacked, taking a break from its regular propaganda programming to broadcast iconic scenes from the “Woman, Life, Freedom” uprising.’
This was the latest cyberattack to have hit Iran, which is also suffering an extensive internet outage amid Israel’s ongoing bombardments.
Iran announced last week that it was placing temporary restrictions on the internet, with the communication ministry saying Wednesday that heavier limits were being imposed due to Israel’s ‘abuse of the communication network for military purposes’.
Numerous sites and apps have remained at least partially inaccessible in the country.
A skilled pro-Israel group known as ‘Predatory Sparrow’ also took credit for the theft of the equivalent of £67 million from Iran’s largest cryptocurrency exchange on Wednesday.
The attacks came as Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday that Iran would never surrender to Israel.
He also warned the US against becoming involved in the war, after Donald Trump appeared to flirt with the idea in recent days, calling for Iran’s ‘unconditional surrender’.
‘This nation will never surrender,’ Khamenei said in a televised address, in which he called Trump’s ultimatum ‘unacceptable’.
‘America should know that any military intervention will undoubtedly result in irreparable damage.’
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