Palestinian activists and hackers managed to infiltrate an Israeli television network and momentarily disrupt the Eurovision contest by showing pictures of a Palestinian funeral, a weeping Palestinian mother, and pictures from the blockaded Gaza strip.

Iran Press/Middle East: Eurovision was transformed for just a few moments to ‘Gazavision’ when Palestinian hackers broke into a live-stream webcast of the competition with a false rocket alarm and images of explosions.

Viewers tuning in to the webcast were warned: “Risk of Missile Attack. Please Take Shelter,” under a fake logo of the Israeli army, followed by images of explosions near the Eurovision venue.

In what can only exacerbate tensions, the week chosen for Eurovision coincides with several difficult anniversaries, and Eurovision 2019 is only a few days after the Day of Nakba (“day of the catastrophe”) which marks the forced expulsion of at least 700,000 Palestinians who fled their homes in May 1948 when the Zionist regime was created.

This year’s competition, the 64th song contest, has been labelled the most politically fraught in Eurovision’s long history, a competition that has had its fair share of controversy.211/213