TEHRAN — Iran announced Wednesday heavier internet curbs, accusing Israel of misusing the network for military purposes amid ongoing fighting between the longtime foes.

“Temporary restrictions have been imposed on users’ access to the internet,” the communication ministry said in a statement carried by Fars news agency, adding that the decision was due to “the aggressor’s abuse of the country’s communication network for military purposes.”

Critics accused the regime of restricting internet use in order to prevent internal unrest amid the instability caused by the Israeli offensive.

Iran began restricting internet use after Israel’s surprise attack on Friday against the country’s nuclear and military infrastructure.

A London-based online watchdog said, “Live network data show Iran is now in the midst of a near-total national internet blackout.

“The incident follows a series of earlier partial disruptions and comes amid escalating military tensions with Israel after days of back-and-forth missile strikes,” NetBlocks wrote on X.

Israel on Friday launched a campaign of airstrikes in Iran to decimate the Islamic Republic’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, which Jerusalem characterized as an imminent, existential threat. Iran has responded with deadly barrages of ballistic missiles at civilian population centers and military targets in Israel.

Iranian media said that Israel briefly hacked a state television broadcast, airing footage of women’s protests against Iran’s modesty restrictions and urging people to take to the streets.

On its Telegram channel, the Hamshahri daily newspaper shared a video of the brief disruption with a text saying, “Hackers infiltrated state television and broadcast a call asking people to take to the streets.”

Iran’s state television later warned viewers that this was “due to cyberattacks carried out by the Zionist enemy that is disrupting the satellite transmission.”

Israel’s United Nations spokesperson Jonathan Harounoff also shared a clip of the television disruption.

Meanwhile, a hacking group linked to Israel claimed to have carried out a cyberattack on an Iranian cryptocurrency exchange company.

The group known as Gonjeshke Darande, or “predatory sparrow,” said it will “release Nobitex’s source code and internal information from their internal network” in 24 hours.

“Any assets that remain there after that point will be at risk!” the group said.

“The Nobitex exchange is at the heart of the regime’s efforts to finance terror worldwide, as well as being the regime’s favorite sanctions violation tool. Nobitex doesn’t even pretend to abide by sanctions. In fact, it publicly instructs users on how to use its infrastructure to bypass sanctions,” Gonjeshke Darande said in a post on X.

“Bypassing sanctions doesn’t pay,” Gonjeshke Darande added in a separate post, attaching screenshots purportedly showing seized crypto funds worth tens of millions of dollars.

On Tuesday, Gonjeshke Darande claimed to have hacked Iran’s Bank Sepah. Reports indicated that the bank’s services were not unavailable after the hack.

In recent years, the group has claimed responsibility for several cyberattacks on Iran.

In December 2023, just months after the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel and the start of the war in Gaza, the hacking group claimed to have paralyzed gas stations across Iran in a cyberattack “in response to the aggression of the Islamic Republic and its proxies.”

A year earlier, the group claimed responsibility for a cyberattack that forced the Iranian state-owned Khuzestan Steel Co. to halt production. The year before that, it targeted the country’s fuel distribution system, paralyzing gas stations across the country.

Israel generally maintains a policy of ambiguity regarding its cyber operations against Iran, but Israeli military correspondents, who are regularly briefed off the record by senior Israeli officials, strongly hinted that the Military Intelligence’s Unit 8200 was responsible for the 2022 cyberattack on the Iranian steel plant.

The reports prompted then-defense minister Benny Gantz to order an investigation into media leaks that harmed Israel’s “ambiguity policy.”

Iran, long sanctioned by the West, faces difficulties in getting up-to-date hardware and software, often relying on Chinese-manufactured electronics or older systems no longer being patched by manufacturers, making them easier for a potential hacker to target. Pirated versions of Windows and other software are common across Iran.

Agencies contributed to this report.