Ahead of Microsoft’s annual general meeting on December 5, the US-based tech giant has been warned of possible legal liability for its technical, cloud and artificial-intelligence support extended to the Israeli military for surveillance of Palestinians and targeted killings. A coalition of international legal and advocacy groups has raised concerns that the company’s long-standing partnership with Israeli defence institutions has materially enabled the expansion of atrocity crimes in Gaza.
In a detailed letter issued days before the meeting, organisations including the Abolitionist Law Center, Avaaz Foundation, the European Legal Support Center, SOMO, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Ekō and the Global Legal Action Network asserted that Microsoft’s cloud services and AI tools have been used to reinforce Israeli targeting systems, which they argue have accelerated military operations and intensified their human impact, thereby creating potential civil and criminal exposure under both international and US law.
The groups contend that Microsoft increased its service provision to the Israeli military in the weeks following Israel’s escalation in Gaza, adding tens of millions of dollars’ worth of support and contributing to what they describe as a steep rise in the military’s reliance on the company’s technology.
The coalition states that Israeli operations over the past two years have resulted in more than 68,000 Palestinian deaths and over 170,000 injuries, and that the destruction of infrastructure, the targeting of journalists and humanitarian workers and the deprivation of essential services have persisted despite the ceasefire announced in October 2025, as hundreds more Palestinians have reportedly been killed and numerous buildings have been destroyed since then.
The groups argue that technology infrastructure supplied by major firms, including Microsoft, forms a crucial part of the systems used to identify and strike targets, some of which they say are hosted in Europe and therefore fall under stringent European legal frameworks governing complicity in unlawful surveillance and atrocity crimes.
The organisations further allege that Microsoft continues to provide significant services to multiple Israeli military units despite mounting global concern, and that internal attempts by employees to challenge or halt military-related contracts have been suppressed, with dissenting staff dismissed as recently as August 2025.
They warn that the company, valued at nearly $3.8 trillion, has prioritised commercial interest over its responsibility to prevent its technologies from being used in ways that may facilitate grave violations of international law.