Cancer-stricken child
Cancer-stricken childIsrael news photo: Flash 90

The hackers' group Anonymous said Saturday that its planned attack on Israel has begun and will intensify Sunday. One of its prime targets is a website for an NGO that assists children with cancer.

The group announced that 19,000 Israeli Facebook accounts have already been hacked. In addition it said, personal details of students from Haifa University have been compromised, as have hundreds of passwords to Israeli email accounts.

Several dozen sites belonging to Israeli NGOs have been damaged, the web vandals claimed, including that of Larger than Life, and NGO for children with cancer.

"The website of Larger than Life has been under attack from pro-Palestinian hackers for a week," Larger than Life wrote on its Facebook page Thursday, "and every day they take down our site and plant different content – flags, a skull, symbols and all sorts of hate-related things."

"It is too bad that this is happening, of all places, to a website for an organization whose purpose is one of love, and assistance to every cancer stricken child under treatment in Israel, without differentiating on the basis of religion, race or nationality."

As of 8:20 p.m. Saturday, Israel time, the site appeared to be up.

Anonymous also claimed to have damaged the Israeli Securities Authority's website.

The hackers say they will attack websites belonging to the government, banks, large educational establishments and more.