Israel Deploys AI-Enabled Military Technology in Gaza Conflict

An Israeli drone seen over Rafah on January 28, 2024. (AFP)
An Israeli drone seen over Rafah on January 28, 2024. (AFP)
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Israel Deploys AI-Enabled Military Technology in Gaza Conflict

An Israeli drone seen over Rafah on January 28, 2024. (AFP)
An Israeli drone seen over Rafah on January 28, 2024. (AFP)

Israel's military has incorporated Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology into combat operations in Gaza, marking the first deployment of such advanced weaponry in the months-long war.

The move sparked concerns about the implications of autonomous weapons in modern warfare.

A senior defense official revealed that the AI-enabled tech is primarily focused on neutralizing enemy drones and mapping Hamas's extensive tunnel network in Gaza.

Israel's tech industry is currently facing challenges due to the war in Gaza. The sector, which accounted for 18 percent of GDP in 2022, has been affected by the conflict, with an estimated eight percent of its workforce called up for military service.

"In general, the war in Gaza presents threats, but also opportunities to test emerging technologies in the field," said Avi Hasson, chief executive of Startup Nation Central, an Israeli tech incubator.

"Both on the battlefield and in the hospitals, there are technologies that have been used in this war that have not been used in the past."

But the rising civilian death toll shows that much greater oversight is needed over the use of new forms of defense tech, Mary Wareham, an arms expert at Human Rights Watch, told Agence France Presse.

"Now we're facing the worst possible situation of death and suffering that we're seeing today -- some of that is being brought about by the new tech," she said.

More than 150 countries in December backed a UN resolution identifying "serious challenges and concerns" in new military tech, including "artificial intelligence and autonomy in weapons systems."

- 'Angry Birds'

Hamas on October 7 launched an unprecedented attack on Israel, resulting in the deaths of about 1,160 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Hamas also seized around 250 hostages, and Israel says some 132 remain in Gaza, including at least 29 believed to have been killed.

Israel's military response has killed nearly 28,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-ruled territory's health ministry.

Like many other modern conflicts, the war has been shaped by a proliferation of inexpensive unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones, which have made attacks from the air easier and cheaper.

Hamas used them to drop explosives on October 7, while Israel has turned to new tech to shoot them down.

In a first, the army has used an AI-enabled optic sight, made by Israeli startup Smart Shooter, which is attached to weapons such as rifles and machine guns.

"It helps our soldiers to intercept drones because Hamas uses a lot of drones," said the senior defense official.

"It makes every regular soldier -- even a blind soldier -- a sniper."

Another system to neutralize drones involves deploying a friendly drone with a net that it can throw around the enemy craft to neutralize it.

"It's drone versus drone -- we call it Angry Birds," the official said.

The Wall Street Journal reported last month that the United States -- Israel's main international ally -- was training its own soldiers to shoot down drones using Smart Shooter's optic sights.

- Hamas tunnels

Another development involves the use of AI-powered drones to map and navigate the extensive underground tunnel network in Gaza stretching over 500 kilometers. These tunnels are crucial hiding places and locations where hostages are held.

To map the tunnels, the army has turned to drones that use AI to learn to detect humans and can operate underground. It is being used in Gaza "to enter into tunnels and to see as far as the communication lets you," the senior Israeli defense official said.



Hamas Hands Over Bodies of Four Gaza Hostages

Coffins are placed on stage during the handover of deceased hostages Oded Lifschitz, Shiri Bibas and her two children Kfir and Ariel Bibas, seized during the deadly October 7, 2023 attack, to the Red Cross, as part of a ceasefire and hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, February 20, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
Coffins are placed on stage during the handover of deceased hostages Oded Lifschitz, Shiri Bibas and her two children Kfir and Ariel Bibas, seized during the deadly October 7, 2023 attack, to the Red Cross, as part of a ceasefire and hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, February 20, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
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Hamas Hands Over Bodies of Four Gaza Hostages

Coffins are placed on stage during the handover of deceased hostages Oded Lifschitz, Shiri Bibas and her two children Kfir and Ariel Bibas, seized during the deadly October 7, 2023 attack, to the Red Cross, as part of a ceasefire and hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, February 20, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
Coffins are placed on stage during the handover of deceased hostages Oded Lifschitz, Shiri Bibas and her two children Kfir and Ariel Bibas, seized during the deadly October 7, 2023 attack, to the Red Cross, as part of a ceasefire and hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, February 20, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed

Hamas handed over the bodies on Thursday of Israeli infant Kfir Bibas and his four-year-old brother Ariel, the two youngest captives taken in the October 7, 2023 attack.
The Palestinian group released the bodies of the two boys and their mother Shiri Bibas, along with that of a fourth hostage, Oded Lifschitz, under the Gaza ceasefire agreement reached last month with the backing of the United States and the mediation of Qatar and Egypt.

Red Cross vehicles drove away from the handover site in the Gaza Strip with four black coffins that had been placed on a stage. Each of the caskets had a small picture of the hostages.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a brief video statement that Thursday would be "a very difficult day for the state of Israel. An upsetting day, a day of grief."

Kfir Bibas was nine months old when the Bibas family, including their father Yarden, was abducted at Kibbutz Nir Oz, one of a string of communities near Gaza that were overrun by Hamas-led attackers from Gaza on October 7.
Hamas said in November 2023 that the boys and their mother had been killed in an Israeli airstrike but their deaths were never confirmed by Israeli authorities and even at the last minute, some refused to accept they were dead.

At the handover site, a large poster was hung up, depicting Netanyahu as a vampire standing over images of the four hostages. "The War Criminal Netanyahu & His Nazi Army Killed Them with Missiles from Zionist Warplanes," the poster read.
Following the handover, the remains will be moved into coffins draped with the Israeli flag and an army rabbi will provide over a short ceremony. They will then be taken into Israel to the national forensic institute to be identified, a process that could take a few hours or even a few days.
Only after identification will there be a formal announcement of their deaths and a funeral.
The handover marks the first return of dead bodies during the current agreement and Israel is not expected to confirm their identities until full DNA checks have been completed.
Despite accusations on both sides of ceasefire breaches, the fragile agreement that took effect on January 19 has held up since the first in a series of exchanges of hostages in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners and detainees held by Israel.