London – Saba:
A new investigation by The Guardian has revealed that Israel’s Unit 8200, the military’s elite cyber-intelligence division, used Microsoft’s Azure cloud infrastructure to store and analyze millions of intercepted Palestinian phone calls — a covert operation reportedly dubbed “a million calls per hour.”
The classified system, according to sources within the unit, was deployed across the occupied West Bank and Gaza, gathering audio, text, and metadata, often with no clear justification for its use. The report alleges that this mass surveillance apparatus was instrumental in identifying bombing targets during Israel’s war on Gaza — a conflict that has left over 60,000 Palestinians dead, including 18,000 children.
The Guardian’s investigation also revealed:
- Data Storage Locations: Sensitive information collected from Palestinians was stored on Azure servers located in the Netherlands and Ireland, raising significant privacy and legal concerns about European data jurisdiction.
- Military Collaboration: Despite Microsoft’s official claim that its cooperation with the Israeli military is limited to “cybersecurity,” leaked documents and internal testimonies suggest that Microsoft engineers were working daily alongside Unit 8200 officers to optimize the surveillance system.
- Use in Arbitrary Detentions: In the West Bank, intercepted messages were reportedly used to justify arrests without formal charges, contributing to a pattern of detentions that human rights groups have labeled as violations of international law.
Microsoft has denied any knowledge of its products being used to target civilians and says it is reviewing the claims. However, employee protests are mounting, with internal calls demanding greater transparency and accountability over the company’s ties to the Israeli military.
The exposé comes amid growing pressure on big tech firms for their complicity in global surveillance, war crimes, and data misuse.
Source:
The Guardian. (2025, August 6). Israel used Microsoft’s Azure to build phone surveillance system targeting Palestinians. Link to article (link placeholder — please confirm from Guardian site directly).
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