Over 14,000 Dead In Gaza: How Israel Is Using AI To Conduct Air Strikes

The fighting in Gaza resumed after a week after the truce between Israel and Hamas ended and casualties were reported in the first few minutes after the fighting resumed. Israel vowed to uproot Hamas after the deadly October 7 attack in which 1,400 were killed. Over 14,000 have died in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza.

Israel's all-out ground and air assault in Gaza has brought the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) back into focus. In 2021, Israel launched 'Operation Guardians of the Wall' in its offensive against Palestinians in Gaza. The 11-day fighting is also known as the 'First AI war'. The data gathered from AI tools were used to strike targets in Gaza.

"Gospel", "Alchemist", "The Depth of Wisdom"

In the ongoing war, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) is employing Artificial Intelligence for the selection of targets and conducting precision air strikes in Gaza. Systems like "Gospel", "Alchemist" and "Depth of Wisdom", that were used before are back.

Systems such as "Gospel" are being used to allow automatic tools to produce targets at a fast pace, and works by improving accurate and high-quality intelligence material according to the requirement."

"With the help of artificial intelligence, and through the rapid and automatic extraction of updated intelligence - it produces a recommendation for the researcher, with the goal being that there will be a complete match between the machine's recommendation and the identification performed by a person," the IDF added.

In the 2021 conflict, data from Human Intelligence (HUMINT), Visual Intelligence (VISINT) and Signal Intelligence (SIGINT) are collected and fed into systems to help create data to conduct precision strikes. The data from satellites, ground intelligence and surveillance are all crunched into these systems. 

"Mass Assasination Factory"

The IDF, in its article dated November 2, claimed that over 12,000 targets have been hit in 27 days of fighting, i.e., almost 444 targets a day. The increase in targets is due to data generated by AI.

"Gospel" can generate targets at an automatic rate and exceeds what was previously possible,+972 Mag and Local Call reported, adding, that this AI system, as described by a former intelligence officer, essentially facilitates a "mass assassination factory". The recommendations are used to incorporate AI-based platforms like drones.

The AI platforms crunch data to select targets for air strikes. Ensuing raids can then be rapidly assembled with another artificial intelligence model called Fire Factory, Bloomberg reported. Fire Factory calculates munition loads, prioritizes and assigns thousands of targets to aircraft and drones, and proposes a schedule, the report added.

The data processed by an AI tool like Gospel was used by the IDF to select targets to be hit in Hamas, this includes Hamas operatives that have to be assassinated. The target division has helped the IDF build a database of what sources said was between 30,000 and 40,000 suspected militants, the Guardian reported.

Aviv Kochavi, who served as the head of the IDF until January, has said the target division is "powered by AI capabilities" and includes hundreds of officers and soldiers.

In the past, Israel Aerospace Industries and Matrix Defense partnered to incorporate AI to develop automated- target detection systems. The Rafael Advanced Defense Systems has incorporated AI into Spice Bombs and other technologies used for surveillance.