Pro-Hamas hackers hijack airport loudspeakers across North America

Passengers at airports in Pennsylvania and British Columbia were stunned Tuesday when loudspeakers suddenly blasted pro-Hamas messages and slurs against President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Videos posted by travelers showed the unauthorized recordings echoing through terminals at Harrisburg International Airport in Pennsylvania and Kelowna International Airport in Canada.

Screens at Kelowna also flashed messages praising Hamas and calling for “Free Palestine,” according to officials and witnesses.

Airport authorities said the digital break-ins targeted both public address systems and flight information displays — a form of cyber-vandalism that disrupted boarding and startled passengers but caused no flight safety issues.

At Harrisburg, “an unauthorized user gained access to the airport PA system and played an unauthorized recorded message,” airport spokesperson Scott Miller said in a statement to CNN affiliate WGAL.

“The message was political in nature and did not contain any threats against the airport, our tenants, airlines, or passengers.”

Miller said the system was quickly shut off and police opened an investigation.

One flight already boarding was searched “out of an abundance of caution,” and “no security issues were found,” he said. The plane later departed safely.

Kelowna officials confirmed a similar breach roughly 2,000 miles away.

In a statement shared with CNN, the airport stated that a third party accessed both its flight information display screens and PA system.

“We are experiencing some delayed flights,” the release read.

“Free Palestine” chants could be heard in a passenger’s video reviewed by CNN.

“Nobody informed us what was going on, there was no crisis response. Everyone was just really confused,” the traveler told the network.

Images posted on social media showed airport screens displaying pro-Hamas slogans before staff disabled the feed.

Kelowna airport said the unauthorized messages were deleted, flight information restored and work was continuing to fully reset its sound system.

Canadian authorities, including the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Transport Canada and the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority, confirmed they were assisting with the investigation.

No group has claimed responsibility.

Since the start of the 2023 Israel-Gaza conflict, pro-Palestinian hacktivists have carried out similar digital intrusions worldwide.

The cybersecurity breaches highlight growing vulnerabilities in airport networks that have become increasingly reliant on cloud-based audio and display systems.

In June, a criminal group penetrated the computer networks of several airlines in the US and Canada, according to the FBI.

A month later, a software outage caused chaos at major European hubs when hackers knocked out check-in systems used by dozens of carriers.

Hacktivist collectives identifying as pro-Palestinian have claimed hundreds of attacks on transport, finance, and government targets in the past two years.

One network known as the Dark Storm Team has previously targeted US airports, NATO servers and Israeli infrastructure.

Others tied to the long-running OpIsrael campaign have defaced or disabled public websites across North America.