Three blind Arab brothers tapped into Israeli army telephone lines and enabled Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza to call overseas at the military's expense, an Israeli prosecutor said this week.

Using Braille keyboards, Munther Badir (22), Muzhir Badir (23), and their younger brother, a minor who cannot be identified, committed 42 counts of computer fraud, according to prosecutor Mr Doron Porat.

"This is the first crime of this sort to be brought to trial in Israel," Mr Porat said of the brothers, who have been blind since birth and deny any wrongdoing.

Besides cracking the codes of a military switchboard and charging Palestinians a fee for the calls abroad, the brothers jammed the telephone lines of a brothel - apparently as a favour to a competing establishment across the street, prosecutors said.