‘Deeply saddened’: Read Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s email to employees on Israel-Hamas war

Just hours after Hamas initiated an attack on Israel last Saturday, Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, reached out to every Google employee in a company-wide email. He reassured them that the company had successfully established contact with employees either working in or travelling to Israel and would continue providing support.

Pichai reiterated the sentiments expressed in his email in a post shared on X. He expressed deep sadness about the escalating conflict and stressed that the safety of Google's employees is the top priority.

Pichai stated, "Google has 2 offices and over 2,000 employees in Israel. The experiences they are going through are unimaginable. Since Saturday, our immediate focus has been on ensuring the safety of our employees. We have now successfully established contact with all our local employees and will continue to provide support. Furthermore, we are actively working to deliver reliable and accurate information to the public through our products and sharing insights into the cyber activity observed by our experts."

Pichai also pledged Google's support for humanitarian and relief organisations operating on the ground.

On Saturday morning, Hamas militants breached the Israeli border, resulting in the tragic loss of hundreds of lives among residents in homes and streets near the Gaza border. This marked the first instance of gun battles in Israeli towns in decades.

In response, Israeli warplanes launched airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, systematically targeting neighbourhoods, reducing buildings to rubble, and forcing people to seek safety within the confined territory. Furthermore, Israel halted the entry of food, fuel, and medical supplies into Gaza, and access from Egypt was also closed after border crossing areas were struck by airstrikes.

Google maintains two offices in Israel, located in Haifa and Tel Aviv.

Here’s the full email sent by Pichai

“I’m sure by now you’ve all seen the news of the terrible attacks on civilians in Israel, and the escalated conflict now underway. Google has two offices and more than 2,000 employees in Israel, and it’s unimaginable what they are experiencing right now. Our priority is making sure that every Googler in the area is accounted for and safe — beyond our employees based locally, we have identified more who were travelling there. GSRS is continuing safety checks as we speak — locating every employee and ensuring they have the best security information we can offer from our experts. We’ve spent today connecting with most of them, but it will take some time to reach everyone. Our teams are working around the clock to ensure this, as well as to detect and remove graphically violent, hateful or terrorist content, or coordinated disinformation campaigns.”