Anonymous is in the midst of a hacking campaign against a number of Israeli sites in protest of attacks taking place on Gaza. The hacking spree, dubbed OpIsrael and begun early Thursday, has resulted in so many Israeli Web sites being defaced or shut down through methods including denial of service (DoS) attacks, that it's hard to keep count. However, some enterprising hacktivists have begun compiling lists of affected Web sites. Targets have included governmental, retail, and business sites -- some belonging to the automotive and fashion industries.

The Bank of Jerusalem, one of Israel's largest financial institutions, has received particular attention from the hacktivists -- as the cyberattackers crowed on Twitter about deleting the organization's online database. Access to the bank's Web site has been spotty. Trying to access it yesterday afternoon resulted in nothing more than a database error, and though the site reappeared, it seemed to be offline again this morning. Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs Web site also appeared on Friday to have been attacked and its database either deleted or tampered with. The Web site seemed to be back up and running this morning.

According to the latest list from Anonymous, 663 sites have been affected. Some of the file dumps contain what look to be the full names, e-mail addresses, and passwords of Web site users, stolen from breached databases.  As the BBC notes, while Anonymous enjoys its hacking spree, the Israeli Defense Force has begun a campaign of its own -- a game called IDF Ranks which rewards frequent visitors to its blog, and content sharers, with different badges and virtual military ranks. The Web site says this is to fight "misinformation" concerning the IDF and Israel. On Wednesday, the Web site began a live link documenting the attacks on Gaza.