Thick smoke rose over parts of Beirut on Tuesday after renewed Israeli air raids struck the city’s southern suburbs, reflecting how the escalating Middle East conflict is increasingly affecting civilian and commercial infrastructure across the region.
Amid the growing instability, tech conglomerate Amazon revealed late Monday that two of its data centres in the United Arab Emirates were directly hit by drones, causing disruptions to cloud services for customers in certain areas. The company further disclosed that one of its facilities in Bahrain suffered damage after a nearby drone explosion, worsening service interruptions for businesses dependent on its cloud network.
In a statement posted on its service dashboard, Amazon confirmed that the impacted sites sustained physical damage due to drone activity linked to the ongoing hostilities. According to the company, the attacks resulted in structural impairment, interruptions to power supply, and, in some cases, the activation of fire suppression systems, which led to additional water-related damage.
The acknowledgment is notable, as it represents one of the few instances where major commercial cloud infrastructure in the Gulf has been directly affected by military actions. Analysts say the incident highlights the vulnerability of global digital systems as tensions intensify among the United States, Israel, and Iran.
Reports indicate that several Gulf cities have experienced incidental damage from cross-border strikes since U.S. and Israeli operations against Iran escalated, allegedly leading to the deaths of senior Iranian leaders.
Amazon stated that it is coordinating with local authorities and focusing on staff safety during recovery efforts. Amazon Web Services (AWS), a leading global cloud provider competing with Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, supports thousands of applications and AI platforms worldwide.
The company has advised clients in affected regions to safeguard essential data and consider relocating workloads to alternative servers while restoration work continues.