A software engineer of Indian origin Vaniya Agrawal has resigned from Microsoft to protest the United States technology conglomerate’s role in supplying artificial intelligence technology to the Israeli military amid the war on Gaza.

A group named “No Azure For Apartheid”, representing Microsoft employees who are against the company sharing its technology with Israel, shared in a blog on Monday with Agrawal’s resignation letter.

Azure is Microsoft’s public cloud computing platform. It provides computing, analytics, storage and networking services.

The email was shared days after Agrawal interrupted Microsoft’s 50th anniversary celebration, when the company’s co-founder Bill Gates, former Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer and current Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella were on stage.

“Shame on you all,” Agrawal told them on Friday, according to The Verge. “You are all hypocrites. Fifty thousand Palestinians in Gaza have been murdered with Microsoft technology. Shame on all of you for celebrating on their blood. Cut ties with Israel.”

Before her, another Microsoft software engineer, Ibtihal Aboussad, had interrupted Mustafa Suleyman, the CEO of the company’s artificial intelligence unit, during the event.

“You claim that you care about using AI for good but Microsoft sells AI weapons to the Israeli military,” Aboussad told Suleyman.

On Tuesday, the Associated Press reported that Microsoft had fired Aboussad.

In the termination letter sent to Aboussad, the company accused her of misconduct “designed to gain notoriety and cause maximum disruption to this highly anticipated event”.

To Agrawal, Microsoft said it had “decided to make your resignation immediately effective today”.

In her email to the company leadership and employees, Agrawal said that she joined Microsoft believing in its mission to “empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more”.

“I believed that Microsoft was dedicated to philanthropy and promoting fundamental rights around the world,” she wrote. “But, over the past 1.5 years, I have grown more aware of Microsoft’s growing role in the military industrial complex.”

Agrawal referred to an investigation by AP, published in February, which showed that the Israeli military was using artificial intelligence models from Microsoft and OpenAI to select bombing targets in Gaza and Lebanon.

Israel has been carrying out unprecedented air and ground strikes on Gaza since October 7, 2023, after the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched an incursion into the southern parts of the country, killing 1,200 persons and taking more than 200 hostages.

Since then, Israel has killed more than 61,700 persons, including nearly 17,500 children, in Gaza.

“All this begs the question, which ‘people’ are we empowering with our technology?” Agrawal asked in her email. “The oppressors enforcing an apartheid regime? The war criminals committing a genocide? Unfortunately, at this point, it’s irrefutable that Microsoft is complicit.”

She said that leaving her job at Microsoft had become “an obvious choice”.

On Friday, Microsoft said it provides “many avenues for all voices to be heard”, reported AP.

“Importantly, we ask that this be done in a way that does not cause a business disruption,” the company stated. “If that happens, we ask participants to relocate. We are committed to ensuring our business practices uphold the highest standards.”