Microsoft Blocks Israel’s Use Of Its Technology For Mass Surveillance Of Palestinians

Last Updated:September 26, 2025, 00:37 IST

Microsoft blocked Unit 8200 from Azure after reports of Palestinian call surveillance in Gaza and West Bank. Israel denies UN genocide allegations.

Last week, Microsoft informed Israeli officials that Unit 8200, the military’s elite spy agency, had violated the company’s terms of service by storing surveillance data in its Azure cloud platform.

Microsoft has terminated Israeli military’s access to technology that was being used to operate a powerful surveillance system that collected millions of Palestinian civilian phone calls made each day in Gaza and the West Bank, The Guardian reported.

Last week, Microsoft informed Israeli officials that Unit 8200, the military’s elite spy agency, had violated the company’s terms of service by storing surveillance data in its Azure cloud platform.

According to a report by The Guardian, an investigation conducted along with Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call, Azure was being used to store and process the trove of Palestinian communications in a mass surveillance programme.

Following the report, Microsoft ordered an external inquiry to review its relationship with Unit 8200 which then led to the termination of the project, which had kickstarted in 2021.

This comes amid United Nation’s recent report that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza. Israel has denied the allegations.

On Thursday, Microsoft’s vice-chair and president Brad Smith said the company had “ceased and disabled a set of services to a unit within the Israel ministry of defense”, including cloud storage and AI services.

“We do not provide technology to facilitate mass surveillance of civilians. We have applied this principle in every country around the world, and we have insisted on it repeatedly for more than two decades,” he added.

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