Washington: Microsoft has shut down its cloud services to Israel after it was accused of using AI for its attacks in Gaza. Microsoft has shut down some of its services to a unit of the Israeli army following the revelations. The company has claimed that Israel was using cloud computing and AI for surveillance of Palestinians in Gaza.
Microsoft says that Israel has used its technology in several attacks in Gaza, so it is necessary to stop these services. Earlier this year, the Associated Press and the Guardian reported on how the Israeli army is using Microsoft’s Azure platform to wage war in Gaza and occupy the West Bank.
Microsoft President Brad Smith said in a blog post that this step has been taken to comply with the rules of the services. An AP report claimed that according to Microsoft data, Israel was using data storage in gigabytes. In addition, it was also using AI for language translation. In addition, it collects all the information through Azure. It is translated. Phone calls and text messages are also kept under surveillance.
The commander of Israel’s Unit 8,200 met directly with Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella in 2021. Just then, the Israeli unit started using Microsoft’s service. It started using an AI-powered mass surveillance system. Through it, it was translating and reviewing millions of telephone calls of Palestinian citizens. Its data was stored in Europe.
Meanwhile, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and the Israeli counter-terrorism security service Shin Bet have achieved a major success. They have killed the battalion commander of the terrorist organization Hamas, Wal Matria, in an airstrike in Gaza. He was carrying out terrorist activities in Hamas’s Nahba section. Israel carried out this operation in Gaza City, which is considered a Hamas stronghold. Here, Commander Matria was preparing to plan a terrorist attack. Wal Matria was involved in the attack on the Nahal Oz military outpost in Israel on October 7. During the war, he encouraged terrorist activities against Israelis in Gaza. This Israeli operation is consdered a very decisive action against Hamas terrorism. Meanwhile, 80 people were killed and many were injured in the attack in Gaza on Wednesday. Among the dead were 20 women and children.
