World Bulletin / News Desk

An intelligence report has indicated that hackers copied and stole hundreds of secret military documents from two government-owned Israeli companies that developed the Iron Dome missile defence system, which was set to blow up missiles fired by Palestinian resistance fighters in the Gaza Strip.

The BBC obtained evidence from a report by Cyber Engineering Services (CyberESI) which confirmed the allegations made by security blogger Brian Krebs on Monday that data had been stolen from Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, despite the insistence of the companies that their security had not been breached.

After tracking the activities of the hackers over eight months between 2011 and 2012, data collected suggested that the cyber attack originated from China and that the hackers had used highly sophisticated tools resembling those used to infiltrate US defence firms.

The report claimed that hackers had the ability to deactivate security software and harvest authentication data, including passwords, and that a number of word documents, power point presentations, spreadsheets, PDFs and executable (.exe) files were stolen.

Israel's Iron Dome missile interceptor system, which was partly funded by the United States, has shot down most of the rockets fired at its cities by Palestinian resistance fighters in Gaza, providing much greater protection for Israelis than during past conflicts.

The Iron Dome system is constructed by top Israeli defense contractors Elisra Group, Israel Aerospace Industries and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. It uses some components made by U.S. defense contractor Raytheon Co.

Violence has engulfed the Palestinian territories since Israel launched a military offensive in the Gaza Strip almost four weeks ago with the stated aim of halting rocket fire.

At least 1644 Palestinians – mostly civilians – have been killed and more than 8850 others injured in relentless Israeli attacks on the blockaded territory since July 7, according to Palestinian medics.

Gaza-based Palestinian factions, meanwhile, have continued to fire rockets at Israeli cities in response to the ongoing Israeli attacks.

According to Israeli figures, at least 63 Israeli soldiers were killed in battles with Palestinian fighters in Gaza and three civilians by rocket fire.