After loudly advertising the use of artificial intelligence (AI) during their 11-day conflict against Hamas in 2021, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have been quite clear about the AI systems they have used in the post-Oct. 7 Gaza Battleground.
Many media outlets have speculated that Israeli AI platforms are being used recklessly, but Blaise Misztal, Vice President for Policy at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA), told Fox News Digital that he believes Israel is using drones powered by AI. , drone mapping and targeting systems as a means of minimizing civilian casualties as they search for Hamas terrorists hidden among the population or trapped in tunnel systems located beneath civilian architecture.
Misztal says the available evidence means drones are “an almost constant companion for ground troops as they maneuver through Gaza,” with the IDF telling JINSA researchers that “each unit has its own mini-air force” that supports body movements.
A number of AI-powered drones can map the underground tunnels built beneath Gaza, or protect those traversing them while searching for terrorists or hostages. Iris, a ground-launched unit manufactured by Elbit Systems “can enter small and confined spaces, above or below ground, to explore dangerous areas by transmitting real-time intelligence and reconnaissance information.”
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An Israeli army soldier launches a drone from a field in southern Israel along the border with the Gaza Strip on January 24. (Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images)
Ghost Robotics makes the Vision-60, a ground-based drone it says can “continually push the limits to improve its ability to walk, run, crawl, climb and eventually swim in complex environments” to “keep warfighters our workers and K9s.” out of danger”.
Xtend UAV systems have also been deployed in the Gaza theater as they were originally developed to target Hamas incendiary balloons attempting to enter Israeli airspace. Xtend’s Griffon Counter UAV can be used to find and kill rogue drones, an important task since Iran and its proxies have deployed or trained to deploy drones against Israel.
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The ability to “parallel” could be a reference to the use of drone swarms, groups of drones that communicate with each other to carry out a directive using AI rather than human operators. Swarms of drones were used in 30 sorties during Israel’s 2021 war, the Times of Israel reported. They helped Israel identify launch sites for rockets used by Hamas.
The main AI-powered devices helping Israel avoid unnecessary civilian casualties are targeting systems known as Gospel and Lavender. While multiple media outlets have reported on these targeting systems, Misztal says many have “fundamentally misunderstood” how they work. Viewers have described these AI systems as having the ability to identify and engage targets. Misztal says the targeting systems have a “human-machine loop,” in which first a human analyst and then an IDF lawyer decide whether a target receives final approval.
An Israeli military helicopter and drone fly over the southern border area with the Gaza Strip on May 30 amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas terrorists. (Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images)
Jonathan Conricus, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and former IDF spokesman, also told Fox News Digital that “while reliance on AI and technology is growing, Israeli policy mandates human decision-making at key intersections.”
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According to Misztal, the Gospel system identifies hard targets such as “buildings, weapons storage facilities and rockets,” while the Lavender system uses facial recognition to identify Hamas leaders and fighters.
Really aiding the use of these targeting systems is their ability to sift through the “continuous streams of data” collected by Israel’s vast number of air and ground assets, including the new Oron-enabled spy plane HE. Learned patterns help systems identify potential targets. “If you can bring the precision that machine learning allows you to do instead of just having human eyes on it, that’s helpful in narrowing down what the potential targets are and minimizing errors,” Misztal said.
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IDF forces have been seen operating in Rafah, a city in the Gaza Strip. (IDF Spokesman’s Office)
The data from Gospel and information gleaned from AI-powered mapping drones will likely allow the IDF to avoid situations like the one Misztal said they encountered in 2021 while fighting Hamas from the air. According to Misztal, an Israeli bomb attack on a poorly constructed tunnel resulted in the collapse of the residential building built on top of the tunnel, causing civilian casualties.
With ground troops now engaged and tunnel networks better understood, Misztal says the IDF is able to “find strategic intersections between tunnels” which it can “block so they become unusable” without causing collapse possible of civilian structures on top of terror shelters. “That mapping process allows them to be much more accurate,” Misztal concluded.
Officers use a variety of information to identify and locate targets. (IDF Spokesperson Unit)
Misztal believes the use of Lavender shows how much care Israel takes to keep civilians out of the battlefield. “We’ve heard about Israel using facial recognition technology while they’re checking people, civilians moving between different parts of Gaza” when the IDF “is setting up safe zones and telling people to evacuate and guarding them as they evacuate because Hamas wants to prevent them from leaving their homes so that they can remain as human shields,” he said. Facial recognition in these situations allows the IDF to “ensure that these protective measures are not exploited by Hamas fighters.”
Despite remaining largely silent on their use, Misztal said that Israel’s use of its AI-powered systems has “become a normalized part of their operational process” since 2021. When faced with some sort of new war after Oct. 7, Misztal said the IDF “told JINSA researchers how they were unsure what they would find on the ground” in Gaza, “but as they got better at understanding the layout, while became better at deploying their assets, like drones and other surveillance capabilities, they became much better able to operate surgically.”
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Palestinian Hamas terrorists are seen during a military display in the Bani Suheila district on July 20, 2017, in Gaza City, Gaza. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
The Associated Press last week published a report confirming Misztal’s observation that the use of AI has led to fewer civilian casualties. Through an analysis of data from the Gaza Ministry of Health, long questioned by researchers, the AP found that “the proportion of Palestinian women and children killed in the Israel-Hamas war appears to have dropped significantly.” The AP acknowledged that the change “went unnoticed for months by the UN and much of the media.”
In addition to reducing casualties, AI has enabled a high level of operations that would otherwise require large amounts of human capital. According to Conricus, “Without the widespread use of technology and AI to automate and simplify complex or resource-intensive processes, Israel will have to multiply its intelligence collection and control infrastructure, which frankly is not a viable option. Thus, AI and advanced technology allow Israel to confront a host of threats within existing manpower and resource constraints.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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