"It's Much Easier To Bomb A Family Home": Israel's Gaza Killing Spree Explained
It’s been nearly 11 months since Israel has started its war on Gaza, following Hamas did a surprise attack on Israel, in which more than 1000 Israelis were killed and over 250 were kidnapped, including civilians. Since then, Israel has unleashed brutal and barbaric war on the civilians of Gaza, cutting out all aids and basic necessities like food, water and fuel for the besieged enclave.
More than 40,000 Palestinians were killed and thousands of others were injured. The Israeli Defence Force (IDF) has defied all the redlines in the war, and deliberately targeted reporters, aid worker, UN installations, schools, and hospitals.
For all the violation of international humanitarian law, and acts that constitute to war crimes, Israel’s claim was that they were targeting Hamas members. Which means the hundreds that were shattered to pieces were just a “collateral damages”.
To the list that examples IDF’s blatant disregard for the international laws, and times when they committed war crimes, the figures are uncountable. With one example that everyone can connect be Hind Rajab, the six-year-old little girl, who was shot more than 300 times.
Among many things, Israel’s use of AI (Artificial Intelligence) tools to bomb Gaza is being scrutinized once again.
‘Gospel’, ‘Alchemist’, ‘The Death of Wisdom’ and ‘Lavender’ might sound like names of novel but they are not. They are the names of AI tools that have been used to process vast amounts of data, identify “suspects” who have links with Hamas, and other militant groups in Gaza, and attack them.
An investigation by +972 Magazine and Local Call, disturbing details from Israel’s bombing campaign, especially how the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) fully relied on a tool for its bombing missions in Gaza came out. The report that was released in April this year explains Israeli authorities’ – whose pride are severely wounded by Hamas on October 7th – killing spree in Gaza.
Lavender
‘Lavender’ is developed by Israel’s intelligence division, Unit 8200. It is an AI-powered database designed to identify “potential targets” linked to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). It uses machine learning algorithms and processes vast amounts of data to pinpoint individuals deemed “junior” militants within these armed groups.
According to six Israeli intelligence officers, who have all served in the army during the current war on the Gaza Strip and had first-hand involvement with the use of AI to generate targets for assassination, Lavender has played a central role in the unprecedented bombing of Palestinians, especially during the early stages of the war. In fact, according to the sources, its influence on the military’s operations was such that they essentially treated the outputs of the AI machine “as if it were a human decision”, said the report.
As per the report, IDF almost completely relied on Lavender, which clocked as many as 37,000 Palestinians as suspected militants — and their homes — for possible air strikes.
Palestinians being displaced for nth time after Israeli evacuation order (image @ UNRWA)
It is said that during the early stages of the current war, the army gave “sweeping approval” to adopt the kill list of the AI tool, with no requirement to thoroughly check why the machine made those choices or to examine the raw intelligence data on which they were based.
Decisions are often made within “20 seconds” to each target before authorizing a bombing, and that too just to primarily to ascertain the gender of the target.
This move was despite knowing that the system makes what was considered as “errors in approximately 10 percent of cases. The report said that the system often targeted individuals with minimal or no affiliation with Hamas. It also added that the IDF systematically attacked the targeted individuals while they were with their family members and during nights rather than when they were involved in military activity.
As a result of this thousands of Palestinians most of whom are women and children were wiped out by the Israeli strikes. “We were not interested in killing [Hamas] operatives only when they were in a military building or engaged in a military activity…On the contrary, the IDF bombed them in homes without hesitation, as a first option. It’s much easier to bomb a family’s home. The system is built to look for them in these situations”, an intelligence officer, told +972 and Local Call.
Gospel
Systems like “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, said IDF, as per the report.
The difference between Lavender and Gospel is that while the latter marks buildings and structures of the “target”, the former marks the people and puts them on the IDF’s kill list.
As per the report, when it came to targeting alleged junior militants marked by Lavender, the army preferred to only use unguided missiles, commonly known as “dumb” bombs (in contrast to “smart” precision bombs), which can destroy entire buildings on top of their occupants and cause significant casualties.
Rescuing a Palestinian trapped under the rubble after Israeli bombing (image @ Motaz Azaiza)
“You don’t want to waste expensive bombs on unimportant people — it’s very expensive for the country and there’s a shortage [of those bombs]”, one of the Israeli intelligence officers told the Magazine. Another one told that they had personally authorized the bombing of “hundreds” of private homes of alleged junior operatives marked by Lavender, with many of these attacks killing civilians and entire families as “collateral damage”, as per the report.
Shockingly, the report also said that two sources agreed that for every junior Hamas operative that Lavender marked, it was permissible to kill up to 15 or 20 civilians, which is said to be new development in the current war, as no “collateral damage” was allowed during the killing of those considered as ‘low-ranking militants’.
In the when the target was top Hamas official, with the rank of battalion or brigade commander, the army on several occasions authorized the killing of more than 100 civilians in the assassination of a single commander, said the report.
‘Bomb whatever you can’
As per the report, the intelligence officers and army personnel who were deployed immediately after the October 7th attack said that, “there was a hysteria in the professional ranks…they had no idea how to react at all. The only thing they knew to do was to just start bombing like madmen to try to dismantle Hamas’ capabilities”.
Another one of the officials interviewed by the magazine said, “No one thought about what to do afterward, when the war is over, or how it will be possible to live in Gaza and what they will do with it. We were told: now we have to f*** up Hamas, no matter what the cost. Whatever you can, you bomb”.
One of them said he believed that this “disproportionate” policy of killing Palestinians in Gaza also endangers Israelis, which was one of the reasons he decided to be interviewed.
“In the short term, we are safer, because we hurt Hamas. But I think we’re less secure in the long run. I see how all the bereaved families in Gaza — which is nearly everyone — will raise the motivation for [people to join] Hamas 10 years down the line. And it will be much easier for [Hamas] to recruit them”, he said, as quoted in the report.
The statement pretty much explains where the Hamas’ October 7th attack on Israel came from. Gaza has been under the chokehold of restrictions by the Israelis. Almost all of the Hamas members and officials, including Ismail Haniyeh, who was recently assassinated, and Yahya Sinwar, the who replaced him, were either born in a Gaza refugee camp, or grew up under the siege.
