Microsoft working closely with Israeli military: Leaked documents

According to leaked internal documents, tech giant Microsoft is working closely with the Israeli military. Ever since the ongoing war in Gaza began, the company has been providing extensive support to Israel in cloud services and artificial intelligence (AI) technology. This cooperation has raised fresh concerns in the international community regarding its volume and depth.

According to a report by Turkey-based news agency Anadolu Agency, documents leaked by investigative outlet Drop Site News show that Israel is now one of Microsoft's top global partners. Since the attacks on Gaza began on October 7, 2023, Microsoft's expenses for Israeli engineering support and consulting have stood at nearly 10 million US dollars. Additional technical support projects worth 30 million dollars are reportedly under consideration for 2024.

However, the financial amount of Microsoft's full contract with the Israeli Ministry of Defense is not yet known. It is believed that the actual amount is much higher than the disclosed expenses. The documents also reveal that from June 2023 to April 2024, the Israeli military's use of Microsoft cloud storage increased by more than 155 percent. This increase peaked just ahead of the Rafah operation in May.

Microsoft's most widely used services in the military sphere are translation tools and Azure OpenAI, accounting for about 75 percent of overall usage. A particularly controversial technology named Lavender has emerged, which analyzes the data of about 2.3 million people in the Gaza Strip to try and identify potential Hamas members. According to info from Tel Aviv-based +972 Magazine, this system initially identified 37,000 Palestinians as "suspects".

Analysts say that the ongoing conflict in Gaza has become a kind of "gold mine" for tech companies. Many major tech firms, with Microsoft being one of them, have entered the competition to secure military contracts. It has been claimed that Microsoft even offered various concessions to secure its defense partnership with Israel. According to experts, these incidents have raised new questions about the military role and ethical responsibilities of tech companies.

Earlier, reports had also surfaced regarding Google providing AI support to the Israeli military.