Microsoft says it has stopped providing some of its cloud and AI services to Israel's Ministry of Defense following a report in Britain's Guardian newspaper, which alleged Israel used the services to conduct mass surveillance of Palestinians in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The Guardian report , published in August in conjunction with Israeli outlets +972 Magazine and Local Call, claimed Israel's military surveillance agency called Unit 8200 used Microsoft 's Azure cloud platform to store recordings of millions of cellphone calls made by Palestinians.

These calls could be played back by intelligence officers, and The Guardian cited three sources within Unit 8200 who said the database was used to help shape military operations in Gaza and the West Bank, and to prepare deadly airstrikes by helping with research and to identify bombing targets in Gaza .

One source told The Guardian that during the planning of an airstrike on an individual in a densely populated area of Gaza, officers would use the system to examine calls made by other people in the immediate vicinity.

Other sources told The Guardian that use of the data was initially focused on the West Bank , which Israel's military controls.

"When they need to arrest someone and there isn't a good enough reason to do so, that's where they find the excuse," one source told the British newspaper.

The Guardian reported that leaked Microsoft files suggested a large proportion of the sensitive data was potentially being stored in Microsoft data centers in Ireland and the Netherlands.

After the publication of its report, several sources told the newspaper that the repository of intercepted calls as much as 8,000 terabytes of data had been held in a Microsoft data center in the Netherlands, but within days of its report being published in early August, the data appeared to have been moved out of the country.

"We have found evidence that supports elements of The Guardian's reporting. This evidence includes information relating to IMOD consumption of Azure storage capacity in the Netherlands and the use of AI services," Microsoft said in a statement Thursday, without elaborating on what the evidence showed.

Microsoft said it had informed the Israeli Ministry of Defense that it would be halting and disabling its use of some specific subscriptions and services.

"We have reviewed this decision with IMOD and the steps we are taking to ensure compliance with our terms of service, focused on ensuring our services are not used for mass surveillance of civilians," Microsoft said.

Intelligence sources told The Guardian that Unit 8200 planned to transfer the data from Microsoft's servers to the Amazon Web Services cloud platform. Neither the Israel Defense Forces nor Amazon replied to The Guardian's request for comment.

CBS News asked both the IDF and Amazon for comment on the report of a possible transfer of the data to Amazon's servers but did not receive a reply by time of publication.

Microsoft said its current review is still ongoing.

It follows an initial review by the American tech giant, triggered by an earlier Guardian report about how the IDF's use of Microsoft's Azure and AI services surged during its Gaza offensive, in which the company said it had found "no evidence that Microsoft's Azure and AI technologies, or any of our other software, have been used to harm people or that IMOD has failed to comply with our terms of service or our AI Code of Conduct."

Copyright 082025 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved.

微软公司表示，在英国《卫报》报道指控以色列国防部利用其云服务和人工智能技术对加沙地带及以色列占领的约旦河西岸巴勒斯坦人实施大规模监控后，已停止向以方国防部门提供部分相关服务。

《卫报》于8月联合以色列媒体《+972杂志》和《地方呼声》发布的报道称，以色列军事监视机构——代号为8200部队——利用微软的Azure云平台存储了数百万条巴勒斯坦人的手机通话录音。

情报人员可回放这些通话内容。《卫报》援引以色列8200部队三名消息人士的说法称，该数据库被用于协助规划加沙和约旦河西岸的军事行动，并通过辅助研究及识别加沙轰炸目标来筹备致命空袭。

一名消息人士向《卫报》透露，在计划对加沙人口稠密区某个人实施空袭时，军官们会利用该系统检查附近其他人的通话记录。

其他消息来源向《卫报》透露，这些数据的初始应用范围集中在以色列军方控制的约旦河西岸地区。

一位消息人士向英国媒体透露：“当他们需要逮捕某人却缺乏正当理由时，就会设法寻找借口。”

《卫报》报道称，泄露的微软文件显示，大部分敏感数据可能存储在微软位于爱尔兰和荷兰的数据中心。

该报告发布后，多名消息人士向该报透露，这批被截获的通话记录库——数据量高达8000太字节——原本存储在荷兰的一个微软数据中心。但在8月初报告发布后的数日内，这些数据似乎已被转移出境。

微软在周四的一份声明中表示："我们已发现支持《卫报》报道部分内容的证据，其中包括与荷兰国防部（IMOD）消耗Azure存储容量及使用人工智能服务相关的信息。"但声明未具体说明证据所揭示的内容。

微软表示已通知以色列国防部，将暂停并禁用其部分特定订阅和服务的使用权限。

微软表示：“我们已与以色列国防部（IMOD）共同审查了这一决定，并正在采取措施确保遵守我们的服务条款，重点是防止我们的服务被用于对平民的大规模监控。”

情报人士向《卫报》透露，以色列8200部队计划将数据从微软服务器转移至亚马逊云服务平台（AWS）。对于《卫报》的置评请求，以色列国防军和亚马逊均未作出回应。

哥伦比亚广播公司新闻频道就数据可能转移至亚马逊服务器的报道向以色列国防军和亚马逊寻求置评，但截至发稿前未获回应。

微软表示，目前的审查工作仍在进行中。

此前《卫报》报道称以色列国防军在加沙攻势期间大幅增加对微软Azure云服务和人工智能技术的使用，这家美国科技巨头随即启动初步审查。微软在审查后表示："未发现证据表明微软的Azure和AI技术或其他任何软件被用于伤害民众，也未发现以色列国防部违反我们的服务条款或人工智能行为准则。"

版权©2025 CBS Interactive Inc。保留所有权利。