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Israel and Hamas may have agreed to cease hostilities on "land sea and air" but that may not stop the cyberwar. On Wednesday the ZCompany Hacking Crew (ZHC) hacked apart the online life of Israel's Vice Prime Minister, Silvan Shalom. ZHC took over Mr. Shalom's Facebook, Twitter account, his blog--just about everything. ZHC tweeted that their control was almost total:

ZHC will be publishing Zine including details of #SilvanShalom contacts,screenshots. docs tomorrow. Watchout #OpIsrael #Gaza #FreePalestine

— ZCompanyHackingCrew (@Z_H_C_) November 21, 2012

In a Pastebin post, ZHC attempted to clarify a few things about who they are, writing, "We are not part of Anonymous although we support OpIsrael."

The crew also posted multiple screengrabs of what appear to be the vice p.m.'s Gmail account as well as his defaced social media pages.

Anonymous issued a statement Wednesday afternoon in which they indicated the agreement between Israel and Hamas had prompted them to "stand down immediately from all further cyber attacks upon the IDF or Israel so as not to risk this delicate and perilous cease fire arrangement."

Anonymous stated that they also encouraged "all those cyber groups who have joined with us to also cease and desist now from aggressive acts, and give this cease-fire a chance."

Hacktivists like ZHC may continue their activities in spite of Anonymous's request. As they stated in their release of some of Vice Prime Minister Shalom's data, "Our Recent Hacking of social media profiles of Israel's VPM Mr Silvan Shalom was motivated by his recent statement in which he threatened to blow up Gaza. Gaza is not just in Palestine we are all Gaza."

Bank of Jerusalem site before its database was deleted. (Google cache)

As part of Anonymous's #OpIsrael, it appears the hacktivists have wiped the Bank of Jerusalem from the web. The site currently loads a mostly blank page with the message, "Couldn't connect to the database server." A tweet appearing to tie the site outage to Anonymous's support of the people of the Gaza was posted on @YourAnonNews:

Bank of Jerusalem database has been deleted | bankjerusalem.co.il| #OpIsrael #Anonymous

— Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) November 16, 2012

Anonymous quickly mounted OpIsrael after the Israel Defense Force tweeted a declaration beginning of Operation Pillar of Defense, an offensive targeting Hamas. Israel calls Hamas an "Iranian proxy for terror attacks" against them.

Most of the top-trending pastes on Pastebin are related to OpIsrael, including this message, which says in part:

Anonymous does not support violence by the IDF or by Palestinian Resistance/Hamas. Our concern is the for the children of Israel and Palestinian Territories and the rights of the people in Gaza to maintain open lines of communication with the outside world.

In a new statement released Friday evening, Anonymous defended its actions by repeating that it did not support violence and insisting "Anonymous has not used any anti-Semitic language during our campaign. Nor have we vocalized any support for Palestinian military operations or resistance groups. Our goal was to protect the rights of Palestinian people who are threatened with silence as Israel has made attempts to shut down cell phone and internet service throughout Gaza."

The Bank of Jerusalem is Israel's seventh largest financial institution and is listed among Dun & Bradstreet Israel's 100 Largest Enterprises. In addition to taking the Bank's site offline, Anonymous has also struck Tel-Aviv's city page an Israeli government commerce site and Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, just to name a few.

(Screencap: Falcon-s.co.il)

Yesterday, the Israeli Defense Force announced on Twitter it would begin military operations on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip. Though social media has long been used as a tool of dissent that can help foment revolution, declaring war on Twitter is a first, and it's a move that raises serious questions about war and propaganda in the age of the internet. Now Anonymous, the loose collective of hacktivists, has set its sights on the IDF, launching #OPIsrael in response to the country's decision to shut down internet service in Gaza.

According to a press release published to Anonpaste.me:

When the government of Israel publicly threatened to sever all Internet and other telecommunications into and out of Gaza they crossed a line in the sand. As the former dictator of Egypt Mubarack learned the hard way - we are ANONYMOUS and NO ONE shuts down the Internet on our watch. To the IDF and government of Israel we issue you this warning only once. Do NOT shut down the Internet into the "Occupied Territories", and cease and desist from your terror upon the innocent people of Palestine or you will know the full and unbridled wrath of Anonymous. And like all the other evil governments that have faced our rage, you will NOT survive it unscathed.

Anonymous has already begun defacing multiple pro-Israel websites, including Falcon-s.co.il and Advocate-israel.com. They've also compiled an Anonymous Gaza Care Package, which contains basic safety and surveillance avoidance information, as well as instructions for how to jigger an internet connection if Israel takes down Gaza's servers. Another document posted to Pastebin outlines how to connect to dial-up in the event of an internet outage.

A Google doc, also being circulated by Anonymous, provides information about protests across the globe in response to the IDF's military operations. A Facebook event for a protest at the New York Israeli Consulate on 42nd St. and 2nd Ave. already has over 1,000 people registered as attending.

Meanwhile, through its official Twitter account, the IDF continues its own attempts to win hearts and minds to the cause. "Good morning to our friends in #America," reads a recent tweet. "While you were sleeping, 3 Israelis were killed when a rocket hit their house." The spokesperson also retweeted a photo of a baby injured by a rocket attack in Israel.