Israel’s elite cyber-intelligence unit saved huge volumes of intercepted Palestinian cellphone calls on Microsoft’s cloud servers, in keeping with a joint investigation by The Guardian, +972 Journal and Native Name.
The surveillance system, operational since 2022, was constructed by Unit 8200, the Israeli navy’s secretive intelligence department. It allows the unit to gather and retain recordings of tens of millions of every day cellphone calls from Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Financial institution.
The revelations initially reported on Wednesday stem from leaked Microsoft paperwork and testimonies from 11 sources, together with from Israeli navy intelligence and the corporate.
In accordance with the leaks, a considerable amount of the info seemed to be saved on Microsoft’s Azure servers situated within the Netherlands and Eire, the Guardian reported.
Three sources from Unit 8200 stated that the cloud-based system helped information lethal air strikes and formed operations throughout the occupied Palestinian territories.
Microsoft stated that CEO Satya Nadella, who met with Unit 8200’s commander Yossi Sariel in 2021, was unaware of the character of the info to be saved. The corporate has stated an inner evaluation discovered “no proof up to now” that Azure or its synthetic intelligence (AI) instruments had been “used to focus on or hurt folks”.
The revelations come after the United Nations particular rapporteur on the scenario of human rights within the occupied Palestinian territory, Francesca Albanese, issued a report mapping the companies aiding Israel in its occupation and warfare on Gaza.
The report famous that Microsoft, which has operated in Israel since 1991, has constructed its largest hub outdoors the US in Israel and started integrating its applied sciences throughout the nation’s navy, police, prisons, faculties, and settlements.
Since 2003, the corporate has deepened ties with Israeli defence, buying surveillance and cybersecurity start-ups and embedding its methods in navy operations. In 2024, an Israeli colonel referred to as cloud applied sciences akin to these supplied by Microsoft “a weapon in each sense”.
The Guardian reported that inner data at Microsoft confirmed that Nadella supplied assist for Sariel’s goal to maneuver giant volumes of navy intelligence into the cloud.
A Microsoft assertion cited by the Guardian stated it “just isn’t correct” to say he supplied his private assist for the challenge.
Microsoft engineers later labored intently with Israeli intelligence to embed safety features inside Azure, enabling the switch of as much as 70 p.c of Unit 8200’s delicate knowledge to the platform.
Whereas Israeli officers declare the expertise helps thwart assaults, Unit 8200 sources stated the system collects communications indiscriminately, which are sometimes used to detain or blackmail Palestinians. “When they should arrest somebody and there isn’t a ok motive … that’s the place they discover the excuse,” one supply was cited as saying.
Some sources alleged the saved knowledge had been used to justify detentions and even killings.
The system’s growth coincided with a broader shift in Israeli surveillance, shifting from focused monitoring to bulk monitoring of the Palestinian inhabitants. One AI-driven device reportedly assigns danger scores to textual content messages based mostly on sure set off phrases, together with discussions of weapons or martyrdom.
Sariel, who resigned in 2024 after Israel’s intelligence failure on October 7, 2023, had lengthy championed cloud-based surveillance.
As Israel’s warfare on Gaza continues, with greater than 61,250 Palestinians killed, together with 18,000 youngsters, the surveillance programme stays energetic. Sources stated the prevailing knowledge, mixed with AI instruments, continues for use in navy operations.
Microsoft claimed it had “no data” concerning the particular knowledge saved by Unit 8200.
