The websites of two government ministries in Bahrain briefly became inaccessible Tuesday night after a cyberattack took them down, purportedly over the island kingdom�s stance on the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

A statement posted online by a self-described group calling itself Al-Toufan, or �The Flood� in Arabic, claimed hacking the Foreign Ministry and the Information Affairs Ministry�s websites. Both later became accessible.

Another statement included scans of passports for American citizens and a top Russian diplomat in Bahrain that allegedly came from the hack.

The statement said the hacks came in retaliation for �the abnormal statements issued� by the island�s Al Khalifa ruling family, without elaborating. Bahrain�s Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa opened a summit last week in the kingdom with a call for a swap between Hamas and Israel for the hostages and a halt in the bloodshed.

A Bahrain government statement sent later Tuesday night to The Associated Press acknowledged that �a number of government agency websites have today been the target of malicious cyberattacks.�

�The government of Bahrain has implemented a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy and framework to address such threats,� the statement said. �Government operations were unaffected by the attacks, and work is ongoing to restore access to the targeted websites.�

In February, the self-described group issued a claim that it had taken down the websites of Bahrain�s international airport, state news agency and chamber of commerce to mark the 12-year anniversary of an Arab Spring uprising in the small Gulf country. The same shadowy self-described group targeted government websites during elections held last year that were boycotted by a banned Shiite opposition group and others.

Bahrain reached a diplomatic recognition deal with Israel in 2020 alongside the United Arab Emirates. The island kingdom, home to the U.S. Navy�s 5th Fleet, has drawn repeated criticism from Iran, its regional arch rival, over that.

(AP)