Social media networking website Twitter has either banned or blocked at least 35 accounts affiliated with the Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist groups following a call for such action by a top Israeli official, according to regional reports.
The action blocks access to these terror-affiliated accounts from inside Israel, though many are still publicly accessible outside of the country.
Israeli public security minister Gilad Erdan recently demanded that Twitter shut down a host of accounts tied to both Hezbollah and Hamas, threatening legal action if Twitter did not comply.
The social media giant announced on Monday that at least 35 of the accounts mentioned as terror-tied by Israel had been blocked in the country, according to multiple reports, including in Israel's Walla News and YNet news sites.
"Enabling terrorist organizations to operate freely and spread their message via your platform may be a violation of Israeli law regarding providing support to terrorist organizations," Erdan wrote in his original letter. "In addition, Israel, like numerous other countries, is currently advancing legislation that will place penalties on internet companies that do not comply with requests from law enforcement and judicial bodies to remove terrorist content."
Erdan and other Israeli officials have been vocally critical of Twitter due to its reluctance to remove accounts tied to terrorist organizations. In the United States, conservative activists have also chided the organization for carrying out what they claim is a purge of right-leaning accounts and commentators.
Those accounts removed from Twitter "included the names of prominent Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh, Khaled Meshaal, Izzat al-Rishq, Hossam Badran, Salah al-Bardawil, Fathi Hammad, Fawzi Barhoum, Osama Hamdan, Sami Abu Zuhri, Taher al-Nono, Rawhi Mushtaha, Moussa Abu Marzouk and Hussein Abu Kwik, among others," according to reports attributed to Israel's Homeland Security Ministry.