JERUSALEM (AFP) - A cyber attack crashed a number of Israeli government websites Monday (March 14), according to the country's cyber officials.

The Israel National Cyber Directorate blamed the outages on a denial-of-service or DDoS attack.

Such incidents typically involve outside attackers directing waves of inauthentic traffic at a website, temporarily rendering it inaccessible.

Ministries of health, justice, welfare were affected, as was the prime minister's office, the news site Haaretz reported.

Communications Minister Yoaz Hendel convened a meeting with officials at his office, and communications companies took steps to return service to normal.

Access to the websites has been restored, the agency said. Hendel declined to comment on the possible source of the attack. Gil Messing, spokesman for Israel-based Check Point Software Technologies said it was unlikely any significant damage was caused.

"This is usually done to send a message and create a lot of buzz. It isn't necessarily an infiltration or grabbing of information," he added.