Intercept reveals Amazon's involvement in supporting the Israeli army.

The American website Intercept revealed internal documents showing that Amazon was providing cloud computing services to several Israeli arms companies and government bodies, which used their weapons to destroy Gaza and commit crimes during Israel's war on the territory.

The site explained in a lengthy report that these documents indicate that the relationship between the company and Israel goes beyond ordinary technical supply, also including coordinated efforts to influence Israeli regulatory bodies to allow Amazon to handle 'classified' materials and information pertaining to the military and intelligence.

It added that these documents clarify that Amazon quietly pressured Israeli authorities to convince them to allow it to process classified data belonging to the Ministry of Defense and intelligence agencies.

While military entities were hesitant to transfer their sensitive data to the company's servers, Amazon sought to persuade government regulators to change this policy.

One document indicates that the company had already begun working with a large unnamed government institution to transfer some classified materials to its cloud service.

A wide range of services The financial documents, as mentioned in the Intercept report, reveal that the Israeli Ministry of Defense and state-owned arms companies, such as 'Rafael' and the 'Israeli Aerospace Industries', utilize a wide range of Amazon services, including storage and networking tools, security, in addition to the 'Amazon Rekognition' facial recognition service.

This technology had previously sparked controversy in the United States due to its poor accuracy with women and people of color, prompting the company in 2020 to temporarily suspend its use by police.

The documents, according to the site's report, indicate that the Israeli military also used Amazon technologies to test large language models, likely through Unit 9900, which specializes in geospatial intelligence and participates in planning airstrikes in Gaza using satellites.

Previous reports have mentioned that this unit also purchased cloud services from Microsoft.

Other Israeli clients Among the clients who received Amazon's cloud services is the Sorek Nuclear Research Center, a government facility operating under the Israeli atomic energy program built in the 1950s in collaboration with the United States, according to Intercept.

Although Israel does not officially acknowledge possessing nuclear weapons, a 1987 report by the U.S. Department of Defense described the Sorek Center as having all the capabilities necessary to design and manufacture nuclear weapons, as stated in the site's report.

Intercept cited a report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute noting in 2002 that the Sorek Center is located in a security area shared with an airbase where missiles are assembled and tested.

Services in the West Bank One document also addressed government offices in the West Bank using Amazon's cloud services, raising legal issues related to dealings with the occupying authority in Palestinian territories.

Intercept attributed to Professor Ioannis Kalpouzos from Harvard Law School his comment that Amazon's relationship with Israeli arms companies could place it in the realm of international legal accountability if it is proven that its services contributed, even indirectly, to the commission of war crimes or crimes against humanity.

Kalpouzos added that 'legal responsibility does not require intent to commit genocide; it is sufficient that support is expected to lead to the commission of crimes.'

Although Amazon may claim ignorance of how its technologies are used on the ground, a former U.S. Department of Defense official named Bryant believes this claim is unconvincing, as the nature of the companies it deals with is clear: 'They are companies that manufacture weapons, and Amazon cannot claim it is not complicit in killing, even if it does not know all the details.'

These documents, as the Intercept report confirms, indicate that the role Amazon plays in Israel goes beyond technological services to an indirect contribution to the military and security infrastructure that supports operations in Gaza.

Intercept states that its report reopens the discussion about the moral and legal responsibility of major tech companies providing their services to governments involved in armed conflicts, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, amid growing questions about the extent to which these companies adhere to human rights standards and transparency in defense contracts.