Archiv: the unit they promised 8200 arabic male virgins / Aman (military spy agency Israel)


25.09.2025 - 21:45 [ +972 Magazine ]

Microsoft revokes cloud services from Israel’s Unit 8200, following +972 exposé

Microsoft has terminated the Israeli army’s access to technology it was using to store vast troves of intelligence on Palestinian civilians in the West Bank and Gaza, the tech giant informed Israel’s Defense Ministry in a letter late last week, according to the Guardian.

The decision followed an exposé last month by +972 Magazine, Local Call, and the Guardian revealing how Unit 8200, the Israeli army’s elite cyber warfare agency, was housing intercepted recordings of millions of mobile phone calls by Palestinians on Microsoft’s cloud platform, Azure, creating one of the world’s most intrusive collections of surveillance data over a single population group. According to the joint investigation, this data has been used over the past two years to plan lethal airstrikes in Gaza, as well as to arrest Palestinians in the West Bank.

25.09.2025 - 21:21 [ theGuardian.com ]

Microsoft blocks Israel’s use of its technology in mass surveillance of Palestinians

The decision to cut off Unit 8200’s ability to use some of its technology results directly from an investigation published by the Guardian last month. It revealed how Azure was being used to store and process the trove of Palestinian communications in a mass surveillance programme.

In a joint investigation with the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call, the Guardian revealed how Microsoft and Unit 8200 had worked together on a plan to move large volumes of sensitive intelligence material into Azure.

15.09.2025 - 23:49 [ Nachdenkseiten ]

Zum Völkermord gezwungen?

Der Vernichtungskrieg gegen die Hamas und Gaza sei alternativlos und aus Notwehr erfolgt, behauptet Israels Ministerpräsident Netanjahu. Was aber, wenn sich der Terroranschlag vom 7. Oktober 2023 hätte verhindern lassen? Vieles spricht dafür, dass seine rechtsgerichtete Regierung die Dinge hat geschehen lassen. Müsste die Geschichte dann nicht umgeschrieben werden, fragt sich Ralf Wurzbacher.

04.09.2025 - 19:54 [ Hind Rajab Foundation ]

The Hunt for Anas Al-Sharif’s Killers: HRF and PCHR Bring Israel’s War on Journalists to the ICC

(August 12, 2025)

Following the Chain of Command

When HRF investigators began reconstructing the strike, they followed the trail from the moment a drone camera locked onto Al-Sharif’s position to the instant the missile hit.
Using operational patterns, signals intelligence reports, and expert military analysis, the foundation identified the chain of command behind the killing:

– Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir – IDF Chief of the General Staff
– Maj.-Gen. Tomer Bar – Commander of the Israeli Air Force
– Maj.-Gen. Yaniv Asor – Southern Command Commander
– Brig.-Gen. Yossi Sariel – Former Commander of Unit 8200 (Israel’s signals intelligence branch)
– General A. : Current Commander of Unit 8200
– Palmachim Airbase Commander – Name undisclosed
– “Black Snake” Squadron Commander – Name undisclosed
– Col. Avichay Adraee – IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, Arab Media Division, responsible for a sustained smear campaign against Al-Sharif

At the political summit stands Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister who presided over—and encouraged—a strategy to eliminate journalists as part of Israel’s assault on Gaza.

09.08.2025 - 17:45 [ +972 Magazine ]

Microsoft storing Israeli intelligence trove used to attack Palestinians

Unit 8200, roughly equivalent in function to the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), has transferred audio files of millions of calls by Palestinians in the occupied territories onto Microsoft’s cloud computing platform, Azure, operationalizing what is likely one of the world’s largest and most intrusive collections of surveillance data over a single population group. This is according to interviews with 11 Microsoft and Israeli intelligence sources in addition to a cache of leaked internal Microsoft documents obtained by the Guardian.

In a meeting at Microsoft’s headquarters in Seattle in late 2021, the then-head of Unit 8200, Yossi Sariel, won the support of the tech giant’s CEO, Satya Nadella, to develop a customized and segregated area within Azure that has facilitated the army’s mass surveillance project. According to the sources, Sariel approached Microsoft because the scope of Israel’s intelligence on millions of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza is so vast that it cannot be stored on military servers alone.

05.08.2025 - 07:04 [ New York Times ]

Israel Knew Hamas’s Attack Plan More Than a Year Ago

(November 30, 2023)

The document circulated widely among Israeli military and intelligence leaders, but experts determined that an attack of that scale and ambition was beyond Hamas’s capabilities, according to documents and officials. It is unclear whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or other top political leaders saw the document, as well.

(…)

Last year, shortly after the document was obtained, officials in the Israeli military’s Gaza division, which is responsible for defending the border with Gaza, said that Hamas’s intentions were unclear.

“It is not yet possible to determine whether the plan has been fully accepted and how it will be manifested,” read a military assessment reviewed by The Times.

26.07.2025 - 05:13 [ Daniel Neun / Radio Utopie ]

„Wir können, also lasst es uns tun“: Über die Mentalität im elektronischen Polizeistaat

(12. November 2016)

Kontext B.N.D.-Gesetz: Die Allermeisten haben weder eine Ahnung was Totalüberwachung aka Massenüberwachung tatsächlich bedeutet, noch welcher Gefahr auch sie dabei ausgesetzt sind, selbst wenn sie sich noch so sehr anpassen und die technischen Möglichkeiten im 21. Jahrhundert über den privaten Konsum hinaus ignorieren. Welche Skrupellosigkeit und geistig-moralischen Verfall die Apparatschiks des elektronischen Polizeistaats bei ihrem Tun an den Tag legen, während gleichzeitig seit Jahren reguläre Polizei, Justiz und Rechtsstaat systemisch verschwinden, zeigen Berichte von Aussteigern, allerdings nicht aus Deutschland.

(…)

Aus Interviews mit AussteigerInnen der mutmaßlich eng mit den Mitgliedern und Mitgliedern der „Technischen Aufklärung“ des Bundesnachrichtendienstes eingebetteten israelischen Einheit 8200, veröffentlicht im „Guardian“ im September 2014:

„Ich nahm eine Funktion an, in der Leute ´Ziele´ genannt wurden, und diese Leute die uns wirklich interessieren sind in keinem Sinne Terroristen, sondern eher generell normale Menschen – die uns interessieren wegen ihrer Funktionen, so dass wir mehr Geheimdienstinformationen über sie bekommen können und mehr Zugang erzielen. Wir nutzen unsere Möglichkeiten über diese Menschen zu unserem Vorteil, um es uns leicht zu machen. Wir nutzen die Einwirkung / die Wucht („impact) die wir auf deren Leben haben. Manchmal beinhaltet dies das Leben, oder die Seele einer Person wirklich zu verletzen. Ich meine Erpressung, bei Dingen die sie vor Leuten um sich herum verbergen müssen. Ich kann Menschen wirklich das Leben zerstören. Es gab mir das Gefühl omnipotent zu sein.

26.07.2025 - 05:08 [ theGuardian.com ]

‘Any Palestinian is exposed to monitoring by the Israeli Big Brother’

(12.9.2014)

I assumed a role in which people are called “targets”, and those people who really interest us are in no sense terrorists, but rather generally normative people – who interest us because of their roles, so that we can obtain more intelligence and achieve greater access. We take advantage of the capabilities that we have over these people in order to put ourselves at ease. We take advantage of the impact that we have on their lives. Sometimes it involves truly harming a person’s life, or their soul. I mean extortion whereby they must hide things from people around them. It can really screw up their lives. It made me feel omnipotent.

18.06.2025 - 00:17 [ Tehran Times ]

IRGC strikes hit Aman, Mossad headquarters in Israel

Images that briefly circulated in Hebrew-language media—before being swiftly removed—show the impact site belonged to Israel’s military intelligence. The visuals confirm that a highly sensitive security installation was directly hit.

According to Hebrew media sources, there is a strong possibility that secret backup sites linked to Israel’s Unit 8200—an elite electronic surveillance and intelligence division—were completely destroyed in Herzliya.

25.05.2025 - 17:59 [ New York Times ]

New Gaza Aid Plan, Bypassing U.N. and Billed as Neutral, Originated in Israel

The New York Times found that the broad contours of the plan were first discussed in late 2023, at private meetings of like-minded officials, military officers and business people with close ties to the Israeli government.

The group called itself the Mikveh Yisrael Forum, after a college where members convened in December 2023. Its leading figures gradually settled on the idea of hiring private contractors to distribute food in Gaza, circumventing the United Nations.

25.05.2025 - 17:49 [ Washington Post ]

Sweeping overhaul of Gaza aid raises questions of morality and workability

The planning documents anticipated public skepticism and preemptively prepared talking points in case the GHF encountered allegations likening its food distribution hubs and residential compounds to “‘concentration camps’ with biometrics” or comparing the organization to Blackwater, a former U.S. mercenary firm implicated in violence against civilians in Iraq.

(…)

In mid-2024, Israeli officials shared their plans with a group of private-sector American consultants led by Phil Reilly, a retired CIA paramilitary officer and former agency station chief in Afghanistan. Reilly’s group, said five of the Israeli and American individuals, took over the planning and determined that a new company led by Reilly, named Safe Reach Solutions, would be the future subcontractor that would provide security and logistics for the hubs.

30.04.2025 - 15:37 [ New York Times ]

Israel Knew Hamas’s Attack Plan More Than a Year Ago

(November 30, 2023)

The document circulated widely among Israeli military and intelligence leaders, but experts determined that an attack of that scale and ambition was beyond Hamas’s capabilities, according to documents and officials. It is unclear whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or other top political leaders saw the document, as well.

(…)

Last year, shortly after the document was obtained, officials in the Israeli military’s Gaza division, which is responsible for defending the border with Gaza, said that Hamas’s intentions were unclear.

“It is not yet possible to determine whether the plan has been fully accepted and how it will be manifested,” read a military assessment reviewed by The Times.

12.04.2025 - 04:16 [ Times of Israel ]

250 IDF intel reservists sign letter calling to end war; PM: ‘noisy anarchists’

“The continuation of the war does not contribute to any of its stated goals, and will lead to the deaths of hostages, IDF soldiers, and innocents,” they wrote, adding lower down: “We see Hamas controlling the Strip and recruiting new operatives to its ranks, while the government has not presented a convincing plan to overthrow it.”

None of the letters published over the last few days have included calls for refusals to serve.

27.02.2025 - 20:34 [ Times of Israel ]

IDF’s Oct. 7 probes show it misread Hamas for years, left southern Israel utterly vulnerable

The investigation into the decision-making process made by top officials on the eve of the attack found that the IDF identified five signs of unusual Hamas activity the night before the terror group’s October 7 onslaught, but believed they did not indicate an imminent attack.
Advertisement

This investigation also found that the IDF’s conduct, decision-making, and intelligence assessments on the night between October 6 and 7 were based on the result of years of false assessments about Hamas.

As a result, intelligence officials on all levels failed to provide a warning for what would come.

25.02.2025 - 22:25 [ Times of Israel ]

Leaked IDF probe: Only one soldier was guarding Nahal Oz outpost on Oct. 7, Hamas had studied base layout for years

Hamas had studied Nahal Oz from afar for years prior to launching the deadly assault and was intimately familiar with the layout of the base, including “where every room was,” the report says. It adds that the terror group knew that the base would be operating at a reduced capacity due to the Jewish holiday of Simhat Torah, which fell on a Saturday that year.
(…)
The probe also reportedly addresses the impact that the incessant rocket fire had on the devastation inside the military outpost, as terrorists were able to easily kill large groups of soldiers who had gathered in bomb shelters.

25.02.2025 - 21:23 [ New York Times ]

Israel Knew Hamas’s Attack Plan More Than a Year Ago

(November 30, 2023)

The document circulated widely among Israeli military and intelligence leaders, but experts determined that an attack of that scale and ambition was beyond Hamas’s capabilities, according to documents and officials. It is unclear whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or other top political leaders saw the document, as well.

(…)

Last year, shortly after the document was obtained, officials in the Israeli military’s Gaza division, which is responsible for defending the border with Gaza, said that Hamas’s intentions were unclear.

“It is not yet possible to determine whether the plan has been fully accepted and how it will be manifested,” read a military assessment reviewed by The Times.

30.01.2025 - 21:22 [ Mint Press ]

Jerusalem Post Targets MintPress After Exposé on Israeli Spies in US Media

In December, The Jerusalem Post published an investigation from Nicholas Potter, a “counter-extremism expert,” who falsely accused MintPress News of being part of a network of far-left, foreign government-funded outlets that push conspiracy theories and anti-Semitic extremism. The claims are untrue and are particularly ironic, considering the calls for the extermination and expulsion of Palestinians and Arab peoples the newspaper has published and because Potter is a German national whose job at the Post is directly funded by the German government.

The Jerusalem Post article attacked a series of MintPress investigations published late last year exploring the deep connections between U.S. media, the pro-Israel lobby, and the Israeli intelligence services. In this series, MintPress revealed that hundreds of former Israel lobbyists now work in top jobs in American corporate media, including for MSNBC, Fox News, CNN, and The New York Times. We also showed how former employees of an Israeli spying agency, Unit 8200, are trusted to write America’s news, including about Israel/Palestine – an enormous conflict of interest.

23.01.2025 - 22:18 [ +972 Magazine ]

Leaked documents expose deep ties between Israeli army and Microsoft

The documents reveal that dozens of units in the Israeli army have purchased services from Microsoft’s cloud computing platform, Azure, in recent months — including units in the air, ground, and naval forces, as well as the elite intelligence squad, Unit 8200. Microsoft has also provided the military with extensive access to OpenAI’s GPT-4 language model, the engine behind ChatGPT, thanks to the close partnership between the two companies.

These revelations are the product of an investigation by +972 Magazine and Local Call in collaboration with The Guardian.

17.11.2024 - 15:55 [ Mint Press ]

Exposed: How Israeli Spies Control Your VPN

(September 11th, 2024)

Kape Technologies is a major player in the online privacy world, one of the three giants that collectively control the market. It owns many of the world’s top VPNs, including ExpressVPN, CyberGhost, Private Internet Access, ZenMate, Intego Antivirus, and a host of tech websites that promote its products.
(…)
Although it is headquartered in London and employs more than 1,000 people worldwide, Kape Technologies maintains a distinctly Israeli flavor. This begins with its owner, Teddy Sagi. Born in Tel Aviv, the tycoon, who previously spent time in prison for financial crimes, is estimated to be worth $6.4 billion, making him among the top ten richest Israelis.
(…)
Company co-founder and longtime CEO Koby Menachemi began his tech career as a developer for Unit 8200, while Liron Peer, the company’s current head of accounting, also served three years in the controversial military unit. Meanwhile, Menachemi’s successor as Kape CEO, Ido Erlichman, is a veteran of Unit 217, the Duvdevan Unit, an elite commando group that carries out intelligence operations and assassinations against the local Arab population.
(…)
Facebook’s collaboration with Unit 8200 goes far deeper, however. This author’s 2022 MintPress News investigation found that a vast number of Unit 8200 veterans had gone on to work in senior positions at Meta, Facebook’s parent company.
(…)
The same investigation found at least 99 former Unit 8200 agents working at Google. These included Google’s head of strategy and operations, Gavriel Goidel; its head of insights, data and management, Jonathan Cohen; and Google Waze’s head of global self-service, Ori Daniel.

Microsoft, meanwhile, hired at least 166 Unit 8200 veterans to fill its ranks, including many that went straight from the military into the company, suggesting that it is actively recruiting from the regiment.

03.11.2024 - 13:47 [ Anadolu ]

Netanyahu arrest warrant delayed in ICC for 5 months

(October 29, 2024)

Delays in the Palestine investigation trace back to 2015 when former ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda initiated a preliminary examination. Although the investigation met the necessary criteria in 2019, it was postponed due to jurisdiction debates over Palestinian territories. The formal investigation began in March 2021, yet no meaningful progress has been made, further delaying requests against Netanyahu and Gallant.

03.11.2024 - 13:10 [ Guardian ]

Spying, hacking and intimidation: Israel’s nine-year ‘war’ on the ICC exposed

(May 28, 2024)

Thanks to their comprehensive access to Palestinian telecoms infrastructure, the sources said, intelligence operatives could capture the calls without installing spyware on the ICC official’s devices.

“If Fatou Bensouda spoke to any person in the West Bank or Gaza, then that phone call would enter [intercept] systems,” one source said. Another said there was no hesitation internally over spying on the prosecutor, adding: “With Bensouda, she’s black and African, so who cares?”

The surveillance system did not capture calls between ICC officials and anyone outside Palestine. However, multiple sources said the system required the active selection of the overseas phone numbers of ICC officials whose calls Israeli intelligence agencies decided to listen to.

According to one Israeli source, a large whiteboard in an Israeli intelligence department contained the names of about 60 people under surveillance – half of them Palestinians and half from other countries, including UN officials and ICC personnel.

In The Hague, Bensouda and her senior staff were alerted by security advisers and via diplomatic channels that Israel was monitoring their work.

06.10.2024 - 18:40 [ Middle East Eye ]

Palestinian journalist killed in Israeli bombing after threats to end Gaza coverage

Hamad was reporting on the new Israeli incursion just moments before he was killed.

A colleague with access to his account on X said that Hamad had been sending videos about the assault late into the night.

During their last phone call at 6am (3am GMT), Hamad said: “There they are. There they are. It’s over.”

A few months before his killing, Hamad shared a screenshot with his colleagues of a threatening WhatsApp message he received from an Israeli number.

The message read: “Listen… If you continue spreading lies about Israel, we‘ll come for you next and turn your family into… This is your last warning.”

04.09.2024 - 11:16 [ New York Times ]

Israel Knew Hamas’s Attack Plan More Than a Year Ago

(November 30, 2023)

The document circulated widely among Israeli military and intelligence leaders, but experts determined that an attack of that scale and ambition was beyond Hamas’s capabilities, according to documents and officials. It is unclear whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or other top political leaders saw the document, as well.

(…)

Last year, shortly after the document was obtained, officials in the Israeli military’s Gaza division, which is responsible for defending the border with Gaza, said that Hamas’s intentions were unclear.

“It is not yet possible to determine whether the plan has been fully accepted and how it will be manifested,” read a military assessment reviewed by The Times.

29.04.2024 - 07:15 [ New York Times ]

Israeli Officials Believe I.C.C. Is Preparing Arrest Warrants Over War

The Israeli officials did not disclose the nature of the information that led them to be concerned about potential I.C.C. action, and the court did not comment on the matter.

Arrest warrants from the court would probably be seen in much of the world as a humbling moral rebuke, particularly to Israel, which for months has faced international backlash over its conduct in Gaza, including from President Biden, who called it “over the top.”

29.03.2024 - 21:00 [ micchiato / Mastodon.social ]

“#Israel’s apartheid army detained, interrogated and beat Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha, a graduate of Syracuse University, with the assistance of Corsight’s facial recognition technology ….

Giora Eiland, a retired Israeli major general, serves on the board of directors of Corsight …. He wrote: ‘The entire population of #Gaza will either move to #Egypt or move to the Gulf.’

The retired general also recommended targeting civilian vehicles in Gaza.” #writingcommunity

29.03.2024 - 20:51 [ Daniel Neun / Radio Utopie ]

“Wir können, also lasst es uns tun”: Über die Mentalität im elektronischen Polizeistaat

(12. November 2016)

Aus Interviews mit AussteigerInnen der mutmaßlich eng mit den Mitgliedern und Mitgliedern der “Technischen Aufklärung” des Bundesnachrichtendienstes eingebetteten israelischen Einheit 8200, veröffentlicht im “Guardian” im September 2014:

“Ich nahm eine Funktion an, in der Leute ´Ziele´ genannt wurden, und diese Leute die uns wirklich interessieren sind in keinem Sinne Terroristen, sondern eher generell normale Menschen – die uns interessieren wegen ihrer Funktionen, so dass wir mehr Geheimdienstinformationen über sie bekommen können und mehr Zugang erzielen. Wir nutzen unsere Möglichkeiten über diese Menschen zu unserem Vorteil, um es uns leicht zu machen. Wir nutzen die Einwirkung / die Wucht (“impact) die wir auf deren Leben haben. Manchmal beinhaltet dies das Leben, oder die Seele einer Person wirklich zu verletzen. Ich meine Erpressung, bei Dingen die sie vor Leuten um sich herum verbergen müssen. Ich kann Menschen wirklich das Leben zerstören. Es gab mir das Gefühl omnipotent zu sein.

Als ich diesen Job begann, war ich überrascht von dem Ausmaß meiner Verantwortung. Ich hatte das Gefühl über wichtige Dinge ein Mitspracherecht zu haben. Ich konnte Dinge in Gang setzen, die das Leben (Anm.: es folgt die Bezeichnung der ausspionierten Ortsansässigen) betrafen – ich konnte meine Einheit dazu bringen alle möglichen Maßnahmen zu ergreifen. Die Einstellung war ´Warum nicht? Wir können, also lasst es uns tun.´ Ich dachte, dass das, was ich tun konnte verrückt war. Wir waren die Chefs.”

Ein ex-Spion von 8200 berichtet, wie Soldaten unter seiner Ausbildung systematisch moralisch korrumpiert wurden, um sie zu “vergiften” und die Skrupellosigkeit im Apparat weiter auf Standard zu halten. Bei Razzien “beschlagnahmte” persönliche Gegenstände von Individuen – “Photos von Kindern, Uhren, Familienfotos, Fussballtrophäen, Bücher”, bis hin zu Juwelen – wurden nicht nur zur Mitnahme angeboten, sondern in den Ausbildungsräumen zur Schau gestellt.

“Die Idee war die Auszubildenden (“students”) zu vergiften.“

(…)

Die einzige Schlussfolgerung die gezogen wurde, dass es in dieser Einheit so etwas wie einen illegalen Befehl nicht gibt. Es sind nicht wir, die entscheiden was moralisch ist und was nicht. Heute erkenne ich, dass dies das ist, was auch der Bomberpilot sagt: `Es ist nicht an mir zu sagen was moralisch ist und was nicht.` Jeder reicht die Verantwortung an Andere weiter.”

29.03.2024 - 20:34 [ The Guardian / Twitter ]

‘Any Palestinian is exposed to monitoring by the Israeli Big Brother’

(Sep 12, 2014)

29.03.2024 - 20:29 [ New York Times ]

Israel Deploys Expansive Facial Recognition Program in Gaza

(March 27, 2024)

The expansive and experimental effort is being used to conduct mass surveillance there, collecting and cataloging the faces of Palestinians without their knowledge or consent, according to Israeli intelligence officers, military officials and soldiers.

The technology was initially used in Gaza to search for Israelis who were taken hostage by Hamas during the Oct. 7 cross-border raids, the intelligence officials said.

29.03.2024 - 20:24 [ Electronic Intifada ]

Firm helping Israel spy on Gaza includes genocide advocate

(28.03.2024)

There is little complaint from western politicians. Corsight’s complicity isn’t seen as an urgent matter.

Nor, for that matter, do most of these politicians give sufficient attention to Israel’s genocidal policies in Gaza.

Unmentioned by the Times is that Giora Eiland, a retired Israeli major general, serves on the board of directors of Corsight.

When Eiland joined the board in January 2021, Igal Raichelgauz, chairman and founder of the Cortica Group, stated, “We are excited to add Giora to the company board, we believe that due to his extensive experience in the national security field, Corsight will continue growing into new markets and territories and lead the face recognition market in Israel and in the world.” Corsight is a subsidiary of Cortica, a firm focused on artificial intelligence.

Eiland is a proponent of the ethnic cleansing of the occupied territory of Gaza.