Intelligence sources involved in the Israel-Hamas war have revealed how the Israeli military’s bombing campaign in Gaza used a previously undisclosed AI-powered database that at one stage identified 37,000 potential targets based on their apparent links to Hamas.
The sources disclosed that in addition to the AI system called Lavender, the Israeli military officials permitted large numbers of Palestinian civilians to be killed, particularly during the early weeks and months of the conflict.
The Guardian UK, quoting the sources, said that Israeli intelligence officials have been using machine-learning systems to help identify targets during the six-month war.
“This is unparalleled, in my memory,” said one intelligence officer who used Lavender, adding that they had more faith in a “statistical mechanism” than a grieving soldier.
“Everyone there, including me, lost people on October 7. The machine did it coldly. And that made it easier.”
Another Lavender user added, “I would invest 20 seconds for each target at this stage, and do dozens of them every day. I had zero added-value as a human, apart from being a stamp of approval. It saved a lot of time.”
The newspaper reports that the testimony from the six intelligence officers, all who have been involved in the use of Lavender, was given to the journalist, Yuval Abraham for a report published by the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call.