While Iran cut off the internet, Israel saw usage surge 30% during the war
Israel’s largest provider reports a 17.5% rise in blocked malicious websites and 5.9 million phishing attempts per day as cyber threats escalate.
As millions of Israelis retreated into their homes during the recent conflict, the country’s digital infrastructure quietly became one of the most heavily used, and contested, frontlines of the war.
New data from Bezeq, Israel’s largest telecommunications provider, shows a sharp rise in both internet usage and cyberattacks during the fighting, underscoring how modern warfare increasingly extends into civilian networks.
In the first week of the shift to widespread home-based routines, internet traffic jumped by roughly 30%, reaching an average of 25.6 gigabytes per day, compared with about 20 gigabytes in the company’s previous report published three months earlier. The surge was driven by remote work, online schooling, streaming, gaming and other forms of digital consumption that concentrated daily life around the home connection.
At the same time, more traditional forms of communication also saw a revival. Outgoing calls from home phones rose by approximately 60%, suggesting that households relied not only on digital platforms but also on legacy infrastructure during periods of uncertainty.
Yet the increase in connectivity came with a parallel escalation in risk.
Bezeq reported a 17.5% rise in the number of malicious websites blocked, alongside 5.9 million phishing attempts blocked daily through its routers. Attempts to directly attack customer routers, efforts that can enable hackers to seize control of home networks, access connected devices such as cameras, or disrupt services, increased by 16.5%.
Since the beginning of the war, the company’s systems have blocked an average of 1.7 million such direct attack attempts per day.
The figures point to a broadening threat landscape in which ordinary households are no longer peripheral targets but part of the attack surface. Cyber threats, once associated primarily with governments or large corporations, are now embedded in everyday internet use, with home networks increasingly exposed to persistent intrusion attempts.
A stark contrast can be seen across the region.
During March 2026, amid the war between Iran and the U.S.-Israel coalition, Iranian authorities imposed a near-total nationwide internet blackout. According to NetBlocks, internet traffic in Iran fell to about 4% of normal levels immediately after the strikes and remained at roughly 1% throughout the month. By March 29, the shutdown had entered its 30th consecutive day.
Officials in Tehran described the move as a necessary security measure. In practice, it cut off millions of citizens from external information, communication with relatives abroad and access to global platforms, forcing reliance on the country’s state-controlled National Information Network.
Organizations including NetBlocks and Human Rights Watch described the blackout as one of the longest and most severe in recent history. Beyond limiting access to information, it heightened uncertainty during the Nowruz holiday period and complicated efforts to assess damage or coordinate civilian responses.
