A joint investigation by The Guardian, +972 Magazine, and Local Call has revealed that Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform has been used by Israel’s Unit 8200, the military’s elite cyber-intelligence division, to store and analyze millions of intercepted Palestinian phone calls, raising serious ethical and legal concerns about the tech giant’s role in the ongoing war in Gaza.

According to leaked documents and interviews with insiders, the surveillance system—operational since 2022—collects up to a million calls per hour from Gaza and the West Bank. The data is stored in Microsoft data centers in the Netherlands and Ireland, in a customized and segregated area of Azure developed with direct input from Unit 8200 engineers.

Sources within Unit 8200 stated that the system has been used to guide airstrikes, justify arrests, and enable blackmail, with intercepted communications often cited as retroactive justification for military operations in densely populated civilian areas. One insider bluntly noted: “When they need to arrest someone and there isn’t a good enough reason, that’s where they find the excuse.”

The revelations include a 2021 meeting between Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and then-Unit 8200 commander Yossi Sariel, during which Nadella reportedly committed technical resources to support the transfer of Israeli military intelligence to Azure. Microsoft has since stated that Nadella was unaware of the nature of the data being stored and that an external review found no evidence Azure was used to harm civilians.

However, internal sources and leaked files suggest that Microsoft engineers helped build security layers around the surveillance infrastructure, enabling the transfer of over 11,500 terabytes of data—equivalent to 200 million hours of audio. The company also reportedly provided AI tools, including “noisy message,” which flags suspicious text content and assigns risk scores, feeding into predictive targeting systems.

The backlash has been swift. Microsoft employees have staged protests, and shareholders have demanded a human rights due diligence report. Critics accuse the company of complicity in violations of international law, including the Genocide Convention, as Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed over 61,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children.

In response, Hamas has called for global protests from August 8 to 10, urging demonstrations outside Israeli and U.S. embassies and institutions linked to the occupation. The movement praised recent international mobilizations and demanded the opening of border crossings to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, where over two million people face famine, bombardment, and displacement.

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