Microsoft Accused of Enabling War Crimes After Hosting Israel's Massive Palestinian Phone Surveillance System

A bombshell joint investigation has revealed that Israel's military intelligence unit, Unit 8200, has been using Microsoft's Azure cloud platform to store and process an enormous volume of intercepted Palestinian phone calls - reportedly "a million calls an hour."

The probe, conducted by The Guardian, +972 Magazine, and Local Call, uncovered that following a 2021 meeting between Unit 8200 commander Yossi Sariel and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, the tech giant set up a special, isolated Azure cloud environment tailored for "sensitive workloads." Internal sources allege that Microsoft engineers worked side-by-side with Israeli military contractors to design the security infrastructure, enabling the storage of millions of daily call recordings.

Since its launch in 2022, the system has amassed more than 11,500 terabytes of Israeli military data - roughly 200 million hours of audio - housed in Microsoft data centres in the Netherlands and Ireland. Intelligence insiders say this trove has been crucial in directing airstrikes, orchestrating arrests, and providing post-strike justifications for killings in Gaza and the West Bank.

Investigators also linked the Azure-backed archive to advanced AI targeting programs developed under Sariel's watch, which have been deployed extensively during Israel's military campaigns - campaigns accused of devastating civilian life and creating an unprecedented humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Microsoft has denied direct involvement in surveillance or knowledge of the nature of the stored data, but leaked internal documents and testimonies point to close collaboration. Some Microsoft employees reportedly raised alarms about the potential role of the system in war crimes, only to have their concerns dismissed or be reassigned.

The revelations come as Israel faces mounting international legal pressure. The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes, while the International Court of Justice is hearing a genocide case linked to Israel's ongoing military operations, which have killed over 61,000 Palestinians since October 2023.