{"id":2099,"date":"2025-08-07T13:37:22","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T13:37:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/08\/07\/microsoft-cloud-used-in-israeli-mass-surveillance-of-palestinians-report\/"},"modified":"2025-08-07T13:37:22","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T13:37:22","slug":"microsoft-cloud-used-in-israeli-mass-surveillance-of-palestinians-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/08\/07\/microsoft-cloud-used-in-israeli-mass-surveillance-of-palestinians-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft cloud used in Israeli mass surveillance of Palestinians: Report"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Leaked documents reveal Israel\u2019s spy agency used Microsoft\u2019s cloud to store Palestinians\u2019 phone calls and target them.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Israel\u2019s elite cyber-intelligence unit stored vast volumes of intercepted Palestinian phone calls on Microsoft\u2019s cloud servers, according to a joint investigation by The Guardian, +972 Magazine and Local Call.<\/p>\n

The surveillance system, operational since 2022, was built by Unit 8200, the Israeli military\u2019s secretive intelligence branch. It enables the unit to collect and retain recordings of millions of daily phone calls from Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n

The revelations initially reported on Wednesday stem from leaked Microsoft documents and testimonies from 11 sources, including from Israeli military intelligence and the company.<\/p>\n

According to the leaks, a large amount of the data appeared to be stored on Microsoft\u2019s Azure servers located in the Netherlands and Ireland, the Guardian reported.<\/p>\n

Three sources from Unit 8200 said that the cloud-based system helped guide deadly air strikes and shaped operations across the occupied Palestinian territories.<\/p>\n

Microsoft said that CEO Satya Nadella, who met with Unit 8200\u2019s commander Yossi Sariel in 2021, was unaware of the nature of the data to be stored. The company has said an internal review found \u201cno evidence to date\u201d that Azure or its artificial intelligence (AI) tools were \u201cused to target or harm people\u201d.<\/p>\n

The revelations come after the United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, Francesca Albanese, issued a report<\/a> mapping the corporations aiding Israel in its occupation and war on Gaza.<\/p>\n

The report noted<\/a> that Microsoft, which has operated in Israel since 1991, has built its largest hub outside the US in Israel and began integrating its technologies across the country\u2019s military, police, prisons, schools, and settlements.<\/p>\n

Since 2003, the company has deepened ties with Israeli defence, acquiring surveillance and cybersecurity start-ups and embedding its systems in military operations. In 2024, an Israeli colonel called cloud technologies such as those offered by Microsoft \u201ca weapon in every sense\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Guardian reported that internal records at Microsoft showed that Nadella offered support for Sariel\u2019s aim to move large volumes of military intelligence into the cloud.<\/p>\n

A Microsoft statement cited by the Guardian said it \u201cis not accurate\u201d to say he provided his personal support for the project.<\/p>\n

Microsoft engineers later worked closely with Israeli intelligence to embed security features within Azure, enabling the transfer of up to 70 percent of Unit 8200\u2019s sensitive data to the platform.<\/p>\n

While Israeli officials claim the technology helps thwart attacks, Unit 8200 sources said the system collects communications indiscriminately, which are often used to detain or blackmail Palestinians. \u201cWhen they need to arrest someone and there isn\u2019t a good enough reason \u2026 that\u2019s where they find the excuse,\u201d one source was cited as saying.<\/p>\n

Some sources alleged the stored data had been used to justify detentions and even killings.<\/p>\n

The system\u2019s expansion coincided with a broader shift in Israeli surveillance, moving from targeted tracking to bulk monitoring of the Palestinian population. One AI-driven tool reportedly assigns risk scores to text messages based on certain trigger words, including discussions of weapons or martyrdom.<\/p>\n

Sariel, who resigned in 2024 after Israel\u2019s intelligence failure on October 7, 2023, had long championed cloud-based surveillance.<\/p>\n

As Israel\u2019s war on Gaza continues, with more than 61,250 Palestinians killed, including 18,000 children, the surveillance programme remains active. Sources said the existing data, combined with AI tools, continues to be used in military operations.<\/p>\n

Microsoft claimed it had \u201cno information\u201d about the specific data stored by Unit 8200.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Source: <\/p>\n

Al Jazeera and news agencies<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leaked documents reveal Israel\u2019s spy agency used Microsoft\u2019s cloud to store Palestinians\u2019 phone calls and target them. Israel\u2019s elite cyber-intelligence unit stored vast volumes of intercepted Palestinian phone calls on Microsoft\u2019s cloud servers, according to a joint investigation by The Guardian, +972 Magazine and Local Call. The surveillance system, operational since 2022, was built by … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2100,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}