Intelligence sources involved in the war between Israel and Hamas have revealed how the Israeli army’s bombing campaign in Gaza used a previously secret artificial intelligence-based database that identified 37,000 possible targets at any moment due to their alleged ties to Hamas.
Sources revealed that Israeli military officials, in addition to the artificial intelligence system called Lavender, allowed the deaths of large numbers of Palestinian civilians, especially during the first weeks and months of the conflict.
The Guardian UK, citing its sources, said Israeli intelligence officials used machine learning systems to identify targets during the six-month war.
“This is unprecedented in my memory,” said one intelligence officer who wore lavender, adding that he trusted a “statistical mechanism” more than a grieving soldier.
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“On October 7, everyone here—including me—lost loved ones. The machine cooled things down. And that made things easier.”
Another lavender user added: “I would spend 20 seconds for each goal in this step and tens of seconds per day. It had no added value as a human being other than being a buffer. I got a lot of time back from this.”
The newspaper reports that the testimony of the six secret service agents, all involved in the use of lavender, was provided to journalist Yuval Abraham for a report published by the Israeli-Palestinian magazine +972 Magazine and the Hebrew-language channel Local Call. . .