How Israel’s UNRWA ban will impact Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank

Special How Israel’s UNRWA ban will impact Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank
UNRWA provides health care services to half a million Palestinian refugees, covering 70-80 percent of needs in Gaza before the latest war erupted. (AFP)
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Updated 21 November 2024
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How Israel’s UNRWA ban will impact Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank

How Israel’s UNRWA ban will impact Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank
  • Knesset has passed two bills banning the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency from operating within Israeli territory and cooperating with authorities
  • Aid organizations warn that the legislation, slated to take effect in January, will have “catastrophic” consequences for Gaza amid “apocalyptic” situation

LONDON: In just a matter of weeks, the main UN agency providing vital services to millions of Palestinian refugees will no longer be able to do so. Israel is expected to enforce new laws banning UNRWA, a move the agency says will halt its vast operations providing aid, health care and schooling in Gaza and the West Bank.

Not only will lifesaving services be taken away, but Palestinians fear that if UNRWA comes to an end, so too will a fundamental pillar of their refugee status — the right of return to their homes.

Israel claims UNRWA has been infiltrated by militants, but the agency’s chiefs deny this and they, along with humanitarian groups and many governments, warn of catastrophic consequences if UNRWA stops operating.

For Gaza, which is on the verge of famine after a 13-month onslaught from Israel that has killed nearly 44,000 people, the outcomes are unthinkable.

On Oct. 28, the Israeli parliament passed two laws by overwhelming majority that will make it impossible for UNRWA to continue its work in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.

The first law barred UNRWA from operating in Israeli territory while the second prohibited Israeli authorities from engaging with the agency in any form. 

The bills, set to take effect within 90 days of their adoption, did not provide an alternative organization to UNRWA for delivering aid or essential services.

Over a series of press conferences, briefings and statements, Philippe Lazzarini, the UNRWA commissioner-general, has become increasingly exasperated as he pleads with other nations to put pressure on Israel to halt the action.




UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini. (Supplied)

He says not only will the collapse of his agency have devastating humanitarian consequences for Palestinians, but also removing services like education will fuel radicalization and have a destabilizing effect on the Middle East.

Lazzarini argues that such a step by a UN member state against a UN agency would also significantly undermine the international rules-based order that those members signed up to.

Shortly after the Israeli parliament, or Knesset, passed the bills, he warned that the vote “sets a dangerous precedent.”

DID YOUKNOW?

2.1 million Palestinians in Gaza depend on aid from UNRWA.

600,000 Children in Gaza receive education through UNRWA.

17,000 UNRWA staff in the occupied Palestinian territories.

(Source: UNRWA)

“It opposes the UN Charter and violates the State of Israel’s obligations under international law,” he said.

Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary-general, slammed the vote as an “unconscionable law” and “an outright attack on the rights of Palestinian refugees.”

UNRWA was established by a UN General Assembly resolution in response to the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land in 1948, which led to the formation of the Israeli state. In what became known as the Nakba, meaning catastrophe, 700,000 people were driven from their homes.




Palestinian refugees queue for food distributed by the UNRWA at a camp in Gaza on November 9, 1956. (AFP)

The agency was tasked with helping refugees scattered across Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria until they could return home. With no “right of return” solution ever reached with Israel, UNRWA’s work has continued, providing many services in lieu of a functioning government.

Yet despite the agency’s work, it has always faced criticism from Israel. One of the main charges against UNRWA is that it perpetuates the Palestinian refugee issue by keeping alive the notion of a “right of return” passed down through generations — something Israel views as unrealistic and unimaginable.

Palestinians believe that without the agency, their status as refugees would be undermined and they fear they would be pressured into settling wherever they have ended up.

Lazzarini said on Monday that Israel’s aim in attacking UNRWA was to strip Palestinians of their refugee status. But he insisted that whether his agency existed or not, their refugee status would be protected by UN General Assembly resolutions.




A right-wing Israeli protesters demonstrate in front of the UNRWA office in Jerusalem on March 20, 2024. (AFP)

In recent years, Israel has increasingly accused the agency of employing Hamas members and other militants among its 13,000-strong Gaza workforce.

Hamas has been in power since seizing the territory from Palestinian rivals Fatah in 2007 and UNRWA has had to tread a fine line between the militant group and Israel.

It comes under pressure from both sides about the curriculum taught in its schools or whether it is showing bias toward one side or the other.

In late January, Israeli authorities accused several UNRWA employees of involvement in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel, which killed 1,200 people and resulted in the capture of 250 hostages.

The UN secretary-general ordered an investigation which reported in August that nine staff members may have been involved in the attacks. UNRWA fired the employees but said it had supplied full lists of the people it employs since 2011.




Israeli protesters demonstrate in front of the UNRWA office in Jerusalem on March 20, 2024. (AFP)

Many Western countries suspended their funding for UNRWA while the investigation was carried out, a major blow given the agency’s budget is almost entirely funded by donations from UN member states. All except the US have since reinstated the money.

An independent review of the agency published in April said UNRWA had a “robust” framework to deal with neutrality but that issues such as staff publicly expressing political views and textbooks with problematic content being used in some UNRWA schools persisted.

Nevertheless, the level to which UNRWA is entwined with the fabric of Palestinian society means that removing its services would leave a huge gap in how the territories function.

Of most immediate concern, the Israeli legislation would remove desperately needed aid and health care from Gaza.




Palestinian children queue for food in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Nov. 18, 2024. (AP)

In a statement on X after the vote, Lazzarini described the laws as “nothing less than collective punishment” that will “only deepen the suffering of Palestinians, especially in Gaza where people have been going through more than a year of sheer hell.”

More than 2 million people in Gaza have endured relentless Israeli bombing and a deepening humanitarian crisis since the war started. The population is fully dependent on the aid allowed into the territory by Israel. Families suffer severe shortages of food, clean water, medical supplies and shelter. 

The bombing and military operations destroyed essential infrastructure, razed entire districts and displaced almost the entire population. Along with the tens of thousands killed, mostly women and children, more than 100,000 have been injured, according to Gaza’s health authority.




Over two-thirds of UNRWA’s premises in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed by Israeli strikes. (AFP)

An UNRWA spokesperson told Arab News that without the agency “the delivery of food, shelter, and health care to most of Gaza’s population would grind to a halt.”

A joint statement by 15 UN and humanitarian organizations on Nov. 1 warned that the legislation against UNRWA would be a “catastrophe” for the aid response in Gaza where “there is no alternative to UNRWA.”

Indeed, relief groups have repeatedly accused Israeli authorities of aid obstruction. While Israel has denied this, data analysis by aid organizations operating in Gaza found that 83 percent of food aid does not make it into the enclave.

Jens Laerke, spokesperson for UN humanitarian agency OCHA, told a UN briefing in Geneva in mid-November that aid access across Gaza has been “at a low point.” 

“Chaos suffering, despair, death, destruction, displacement is at a high point,” he said, adding that delivering assistance in northern Gaza was “near impossible.” 




A Palestinian woman holds the shrouded body of child killed in Israeli bombardment, at a health clinic in the area of Tel al-Sultan in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip on May 26, 2024. (AFP)

The ramifications of the new laws will extend beyond Gaza, across the entire occupied Palestinian territories. 

“In the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, without UNRWA, health, education and social services to Palestine refugees would fall apart,” the UNRWA spokesperson said. 

Addressing a UN General Assembly committee last week, Lazzarini warned the risk of UNRWA’s collapse “threatens the lives and futures of individuals and communities.”  

UNRWA delivers education to more than 660,000 children across Gaza and at least 50,000 in the West Bank. If the agency's work stops, “an entire generation will be denied the right to education,” Lazzarini added: “Their future will be sacrificed, sowing the seeds for marginalization and extremism.” 




Palestinian children play at UNRWA-run school in the Qalandia refugee camp in the occupied West Bank on Nov. 14, 2024. (AFP)

The agency provides health care services to half a million Palestinian refugees, covering 70-80 percent of needs in Gaza before the war. 

Banning UNRWA would also put at risk the jobs of 17,000 employees in Gaza and the West Bank.

More than 240 UNRWA personnel have already been killed in the Gaza war and others have been detained and tortured. 

UNRWA is a “casualty” of the Gaza war and “not a party” to the Israel-Palestine conflict, Lazzarini said.

“Palestinian armed groups, including Hamas, and Israeli forces have allegedly used our premises for military purposes,” he added. 

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Away from Gaza, concern is growing that the demise of UNRWA would erode the refugee status of Palestinians, further weakening their cause. 

The non-governmental organization Medical Aid for Palestinians warned that discrediting UNRWA “undermined the international legal framework protecting their (Palestinian refugees) rights, including the right of return.” 

Rafe Jabari, a researcher on the political sociology of Arab states, told Arab News that UNRWA plays a critical role in “keeping the refugee question on track” while providing the international community with essential data and insights on the situation in Gaza.




A Palestinian girl walks past a World Health Organization (WHO) storage center destroyed in a recent Israeli bombardment in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on Nov. 19, 2024. (AFP)

Israeli officials have “banned the entry of international journalists” into Gaza and “are now attacking the most important, neutral, and impartial organization (UNRWA),” he said.

“By eliminating this important source of information, the Israelis aim to obscure their practices and policies on the ground, undermining the credibility of other sources and, in turn, denying the outcomes of their actions.”

Despite the widespread concern over UNRWA’s future, there is no sign that Israel may be willing to halt the ban and little detail on how its work could be replaced.

“UNRWA may be defined by a single word — failure,” Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon told a meeting of the General Assembly on UNRWA earlier this month. “This idea that UNRWA could not be supplemented is absurd.”




Displaced Palestinians walk amid blood-stained rubble following an Israeli strike that hit a UN-run school where people had taken refuge, in the Nusseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on Nov, 20, 2024. (AFP)

Yet, as the clock ticks toward the ban being enforced, the warnings from the UN grow even louder, with officials saying Israel will have to step in when UNRWA is no longer operating.

Speaking in Geneva on Monday, Lazzarini said while there was no functioning state or institutions for Palestinians, then the role of UNRWA was “irreplaceable.”

“There is no Plan B,” he said.
 

 


Arab League summit kicks off in Baghdad with Gaza at the top of the agenda

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Arab League summit kicks off in Baghdad with Gaza at the top of the agenda

Arab League summit kicks off in Baghdad with Gaza at the top of the agenda
BAGHDAD: Regional leaders were to meet in Baghdad on Saturday at the annual summit of the Arab League, with the war in Gaza expected to once again loom large.
In March, at an emergency summit in Cairo, Arab leaders endorsed a proposed plan for reconstruction of the Gaza Strip without displacing its roughly 2 million residents.
Saturday’s summit comes two months after after Israel ended a ceasefire reached with the Hamas militant group in January. In recent days, Israel has launched widespread attacks in Gaza and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed a further escalation of force to pursue his aim of destroying Hamas.
The Baghdad meeting was upstaged by U.S. President Donald Trump’s tour in the region earlier in the week. Trump’s visit did not usher in a deal for a new ceasefire in Gaza as many had hoped, but he grabbed headlines by meeting with new Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa — who had once fought against U.S. forces in Iraq — and promising to remove U.S. sanctions imposed on Syria.
Al-Sharaa was not attending the summit in Baghdad, where Syria’s delegation was headed by Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani. Iraqi Shiite militias and political factions are wary of al-Sharaa’s past as a Sunni militant and had pushed back against his invitation to the summit.
Formerly known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, al-Sharaa joined the ranks of al-Qaida insurgents battling U.S. forces in Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 to oust Saddam Hussein and still faces a warrant for his arrest on terrorism charges in Iraq.
During Syria’s conflict that began in March 2011, several Iraqi Shiite militias fought alongside the forces of former Syrian President Bashar Assad, making al-Sharaa today a particularly sensitive figure for them.
Iraq, which has strong — and sometimes conflicting — ties with both the United States and Iran, has sought to strike a difficult balance between them and to position itself as a regional mediator.
An Iraqi political official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment, said that Iran’s Quds Force commander Esmail Ghaani had paid a visit to Baghdad prior to the summit and “conveyed messages of support for the Iranian-American negotiations” for a nuclear deal and a demand for the lifting of crippling sanctions on Iran.

Israel launches ‘initial stages’ of new Gaza operation: military

Israel launches ‘initial stages’ of new Gaza operation: military
Updated 17 May 2025
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Israel launches ‘initial stages’ of new Gaza operation: military

Israel launches ‘initial stages’ of new Gaza operation: military
  • Gaza’s civil defense agency earlier said Israeli strikes on Gaza had killed 100 people on Friday

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said Saturday it had launched “extensive strikes” in the Gaza Strip over the past day as part of the “initial stages” of a fresh offensive on the besieged Palestinian territory.
The strikes were part of “the expansion of the battle in the Gaza Strip, with the goal of achieving all the war’s objectives, including the release of the abducted and the defeat of Hamas,” Israel’s army said in a statement in Arabic on Telegram.
Gaza’s civil defense agency earlier said Israeli strikes on Gaza had killed 100 people on Friday.
The offensive, known as “Operation Gideon’s Chariots,” comes as Israel faces pressure to lift a sweeping aid blockade in return for a US-Israeli hostage released by Hamas.
Israel resumed its military offensive in Gaza on March 18 after a two-month truce in its war against Hamas, which was triggered by an attack by the Palestinian group in October 2023.
That assault resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Of the 251 hostages taken during the attack, 57 remain in Gaza, including 34 the military says are dead.
The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said 2,985 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,119.
Israeli media reported on Friday that the military had stepped up its offensive in line with a plan approved by the government earlier this month, though there had not been any formal announcement of an expanded campaign.
The military said its forces had “struck over 150 terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip” in 24 hours.


The crisis is Gaza is only growing. Here’s what to know

The crisis is Gaza is only growing. Here’s what to know
Updated 17 May 2025
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The crisis is Gaza is only growing. Here’s what to know

The crisis is Gaza is only growing. Here’s what to know

JERUSALEM: The crisis in Gaza has reached one of its darkest periods, as Israel blocks all food and supplies from entering the territory and continues an intensifying bombardment campaign.
Humanitarian officials caution that famine threatens to engulf the strip. Doctors say they are out of medicine to treat routine conditions.
Israeli leaders are threatening an even more intense ground offensive. The military is preparing for a new organization with US backing to take over aid delivery, despite alarms raised from humanitarian groups that the plans won’t meet the massive need and could place restrictions on those eligible. It’s unclear when operations would begin or who would fund them.
“This is the deadliest and most destructive phase of Israel’s war on Gaza, yet the world has turned away,” said Bushra Khalidi, policy lead for Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory at the humanitarian nonprofit Oxfam. “After 19 months of horror, Gaza has become a place where international law is suspended, and humanity is abandoned.”
HERE’S WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE STATE OF AFFAIRS IN GAZA
Casualties soar from increased Israeli bombardment
Israel ended a six-week ceasefire in mid-March and resumed its attacks in Gaza, saying military pressure against Hamas was the best way to push the militant group into freeing more hostages. But ceasefire talks remain deadlocked, and scores of civilians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes.
On Friday, Israeli airstrikes killed 108 — raising the death toll over the past three days to more than 200 Palestinians. Those numbers come from the Palestinian Health Ministry, a body directed by the Hamas government that does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
The strikes — often at night, as people sleep in their tents — have directly targeted hospitals, schools, medical clinics, mosques, a Thai restaurant-turned shelter. The European Hospital, the only remaining facility providing cancer treatments in Gaza, was put out of service.

Israel says it targets only militants and accuses Hamas of using civilians as human shields.
But the death toll has reached the same level of intensity as the earliest days of the war, when Israel pounded Gaza with airstrikes in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack, said Emily Tripp, executive director of Airwars, an independent group in London that tracks recent conflicts.
She says preliminary data indicate the number of incidents where at least one person was killed or injured by Israeli fire hovered around 700 in April. It’s a figure comparable only to October or December 2023 — one of the heaviest periods of bombardment.
In the last 10 days of March, UNICEF estimates that an average of 100 children were killed or maimed by Israeli airstrikes every day.
Almost 3,000 of the estimated 53,000 dead since Oct. 7, 2023, have been killed since Israel broke the ceasefire on March 18, the ministry said.
Among those killed in recent days:
A volunteer pharmacist with the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, killed with her family in a strike on Gaza City on May 4.
A midwife from Al Awda Health and Community Association, killed with her family in another strike on May 7.
A journalist working for Qatari television network Al Araby TV, along with 11 members of his family.
Motaz Al-Bayyok, age 1. His older brother, Yusuf, 11, screamed as a shroud was parted to expose young Motaz’s face.
Israeli officials threaten new ground operation
Israel shows no sign of slowing its operation in Gaza.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised this week to use even more force against Hamas, against the objections of families of hostages begging him to agree to a deal instead.
An Israeli official said the strikes Friday were preparatory actions for a larger operation, intended to send a message to Hamas that it will begin soon if there isn’t an agreement to release hostages. The official was not authorized to brief media and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The war began when Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people in an Oct. 7, 2023, intrusion into southern Israel. Hamas still holds 58 of the roughly 250 hostages it took during its attack, with 23 believed to still be alive, although Israeli authorities have expressed concern for the status of three.
No food has entered Gaza for 75 days, and Palestinians go hungry
Israel has blocked food, water and supplies from reaching Gaza — where the UN says the entire population is reliant on aid — for more than two months. Most community kitchens have shut down. The main food providers inside Gaza — the UN’s World Food Program and World Central Kitchen — say they are out of food. Vegetables and meat are inaccessible or unaffordable. Palestinians queue for hours for a small scoop of rice.
Food security experts said in a stark warning Monday that Gaza would likely fall into famine if Israel doesn’t lift its blockade and stop its military campaign.
Nearly half a million Palestinians face possible starvation — living in “catastrophic” levels of hunger — and 1 million others can barely get enough food, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a leading international authority on the severity of hunger crises.
Israel is preparing south Gaza for a new aid program
Satellite photos obtained by The Associated Press show what appear to be Israeli preparations for a new aid distribution program in Gaza, one that has come under heavy criticism from aid workers.
Satellite photos from May 10 show four bases in southern Gaza — two that are newly built in the last month and two that have been enhanced.
One, at the southwestern corner of Gaza, has been fortified with new walls. A new road connects the base to a sandy expanse of newly bulldozed land.
Another base, in the center of Gaza, appears to have been fortified with new defensive sand berms. Adjacent is a newly bulldozed lot.
The photos appear to correspond to a new aid distribution program being developed by a new group supported by the US.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation — made up of American security contractors, former government officials, ex-military officers and humanitarian officials — says it would initially set up four distribution sites, guarded by private security firms. Each would serve 300,000 people, covering only about half of Gaza’s population.
The GHF proposal said subcontractors will use armored vehicles to transport supplies from the Gaza border to distribution sites, where they will also provide security. It said the aim is to deter criminal gangs or militants from redirecting aid.


‘Let’s not waste time’ with US-backed Gaza aid plan UN aid chief’: UN aid chief

‘Let’s not waste time’ with US-backed Gaza aid plan UN aid chief’: UN aid chief
Updated 17 May 2025
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‘Let’s not waste time’ with US-backed Gaza aid plan UN aid chief’: UN aid chief

‘Let’s not waste time’ with US-backed Gaza aid plan UN aid chief’: UN aid chief
  • No aid has entered Gaza since March 2
  • US-backed aid group aims to start work by end of May

UNITED NATIONS: United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher said on Friday that time should not be wasted on an alternative US-backed proposal to deliver aid to Gaza, saying the UN has a proven plan and 160,000 pallets of relief ready to enter the Palestinian enclave now.
“To those proposing an alternative modality for aid distribution, let’s not waste time. We already have a plan,” he said in a statement as Israel blocked the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza for the 75th day in a row.
US President Donald Trump said earlier on Friday that “a lot of people are starving in Gaza.” A global hunger monitor has warned that half a million people face starvation — about a quarter of the population in the enclave.
Israel has accused Palestinian militant group Hamas of stealing aid, which the group denies. Under the alternative heavily-criticized aid plan, a US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aims to start work in Gaza by the end of May.
The foundation intends to work with private US security and logistics firms to transport aid into Gaza to so-called secure hubs where it will be then distributed by aid groups, a source familiar with the plan has told Reuters. It is unclear how the foundation will be funded.
The UN has said it won’t work with the foundation because the distribution plan is not impartial, neutral or independent. Fletcher on Friday issued a briefing note on the UN plan to resume aid deliveries to Gaza, adding that nearly 9,000 trucks are ready to enter the enclave.
“We have the people. We have the distribution networks. We have the trust of the communities on the ground. And we have the aid itself – 160,000 pallets of it – ready to move. Now,” he said. “We demand rapid, safe, and unimpeded aid delivery for civilians in need. Let us work.”
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has asked Israel to allow humanitarian deliveries by the UN and aid groups to resume now until its own infrastructure is fully operational, saying this is essential to “alleviate the ongoing humanitarian pressure.”
Israel has committed to the foundation to let aid deliveries resume imminently, said a source familiar with the plan. Israel’s UN mission in New York declined to comment on Friday.
The war in Gaza was triggered on October 7, 2023, when Palestinian militants Hamas killed 1,200 people in southern Israel and took some 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Since then, Israel’s military campaign has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities.


Microsoft says it provided AI to Israeli military for war but denies use to harm people in Gaza

Microsoft says it provided AI to Israeli military for war but denies use to harm people in Gaza
Updated 17 May 2025
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Microsoft says it provided AI to Israeli military for war but denies use to harm people in Gaza

Microsoft says it provided AI to Israeli military for war but denies use to harm people in Gaza
  • The company added that it could not know how its products might be used through other commercial cloud providers

WASHINGTON: Microsoft acknowledged Thursday that it sold advanced artificial intelligence and cloud computing services to the Israeli military during the war in Gaza and aided in efforts to locate and rescue Israeli hostages. But the company also said it has found no evidence to date that its Azure platform and AI technologies were used to target or harm people in Gaza.
The unsigned blog post on Microsoft’s corporate website appears to be the company’s first public acknowledgement of its deep involvement in the war, which started after Hamas killed about 1,200 people in Israel and has led to the deaths of tens of thousands in Gaza.
It comes nearly three months after an investigation by The Associated Press revealed previously unreported details about the American tech giant’s close partnership with the Israeli Ministry of Defense, with military use of commercial AI products skyrocketing by nearly 200 times after the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. The AP reported that the Israeli military uses Azure to transcribe, translate and process intelligence gathered through mass surveillance, which can then be cross-checked with Israel’s in-house AI-enabled targeting systems and vice versa.
The partnership reflects a growing drive by tech companies to sell their artificial intelligence products to militaries for a wide range of uses, including in Israel, Ukraine and the United States. However, human rights groups have raised concerns that AI systems, which can be flawed and prone to errors, are being used to help make decisions about who or what to target, resulting in the deaths of innocent people.
Microsoft said Thursday that employee concerns and media reports had prompted the company to launch an internal review and hire an external firm to undertake “additional fact-finding.” The statement did not identify the outside firm or provide a copy of its report.
The statement also did not directly address several questions about precisely how the Israeli military is using its technologies, and the company declined Friday to comment further. Microsoft declined to answer written questions from The AP about how its AI models helped translate, sort and analyze intelligence used by the military to select targets for airstrikes.
The company’s statement said it had provided the Israeli military with software, professional services, Azure cloud storage and Azure AI services, including language translation, and had worked with the Israeli government to protect its national cyberspace against external threats. Microsoft said it had also provided “special access to our technologies beyond the terms of our commercial agreements” and “limited emergency support” to Israel as part of the effort to help rescue the more than 250 hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7.
“We provided this help with significant oversight and on a limited basis, including approval of some requests and denial of others,” Microsoft said. “We believe the company followed its principles on a considered and careful basis, to help save the lives of hostages while also honoring the privacy and other rights of civilians in Gaza.”
The company did not answer whether it or the outside firm it hired communicated or consulted with the Israeli military as part of its internal probe. It also did not respond to requests for additional details about the special assistance it provided to the Israeli military to recover hostages or the specific steps to safeguard the rights and privacy of Palestinians.
In its statement, the company also conceded that it “does not have visibility into how customers use our software on their own servers or other devices.” The company added that it could not know how its products might be used through other commercial cloud providers.
In addition to Microsoft, the Israeli military has extensive contracts for cloud or AI services with Google, Amazon, Palantir and several other major American tech firms.
Microsoft said the Israeli military, like any other customer, was bound to follow the company’s Acceptable Use Policy and AI Code of Conduct, which prohibit the use of products to inflict harm in any way prohibited by law. In its statement, the company said it had found “no evidence” the Israeli military had violated those terms.
Emelia Probasco, a senior fellow for the Center for Security and Emerging Technology at Georgetown University, said the statement is noteworthy because few commercial technology companies have so clearly laid out standards for working globally with international governments.
“We are in a remarkable moment where a company, not a government, is dictating terms of use to a government that is actively engaged in a conflict,” she said. “It’s like a tank manufacturer telling a country you can only use our tanks for these specific reasons. That is a new world.”
Israel has used its vast trove of intelligence to both target Islamic militants and conduct raids into Gaza seeking to rescue hostages, with civilians often caught in the crossfire. For example, a February 2024 operation that freed two Israeli hostages in Rafah resulted in the deaths of 60 Palestinians. A June 2024 raid in the Nuseirat refugee camp freed four Israeli hostages from Hamas captivity but resulted in the deaths of at least 274 Palestinians.
Overall, Israel’s invasions and extensive bombing campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon have resulted in the deaths of more than 50,000 people, many of them women and children.
No Azure for Apartheid, a group of current and former Microsoft employees, called on Friday for the company to publicly release a full copy of the investigative report.
“It’s very clear that their intention with this statement is not to actually address their worker concerns, but rather to make a PR stunt to whitewash their image that has been tarnished by their relationship with the Israeli military,” said Hossam Nasr, a former Microsoft worker fired in October after he helped organize an unauthorized vigil at the company’s headquarters for Palestinians killed in Gaza.
Cindy Cohn, executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, applauded Microsoft Friday for taking a step toward transparency. But she said the statement raised many unanswered questions, including details about how Microsoft’s services and AI models were being used by the Israeli military on its own government servers.
“I’m glad there’s a little bit of transparency here,” said Cohn, who has long called on US tech giants to be more open about their military contracts. “But it is hard to square that with what’s actually happening on the ground.”