Phone lines for essential services in Israel, such as Magen David Adom (MDA), police, Hatzalah, and the Fire Department, were down for over an hour amid a malfunction initially feared to be a potential cyberattack, Israeli media reports.
The Bezeq Electric company stated that "following the company's initiated night work, a malfunction occurred in all Bezeq lines. The company's engineers are working to restore all services to full operation."
Police, Hatzalah, MDA and Fire Department hotlines are now operational after the initial pause.
According to the Ministry of Communications, the faults will be fixed throughout the night.
Services restored
"In continuation to the previous message, we would like to update that an initial review revealed a malfunction occurred during infrastructure work, affecting Bezek telecommunication lines (not just emergency lines)," the Police Spokesperson’s Unit said in a statement.
"The issue is being addressed by the relevant authorities," the statement continued.
Alternative Ways To Report An Emergency:
To report an emergency by phone, you can send an SMS to the number 052-2020100.
Additionally, you can use the Israel Police digital service through the interactive chatbot of the 110 Information Center utilizing the following link: https://did.li/moked110
The following numbers were available while emergency service hotlines were down:
MDA: 052-7000-101 (SMS).
Fire Department: 050-596-0735 (SMS).
Police: 052-2020100 (Disabilities hotline).
Hatzalah: 052-7026730.