The recent war on Gaza became a testing ground for artificial intelligence technologies on the battlefield, signaling a possible future for warfare in the AI era.

Israel employed an unprecedented mix of AI systems, some supported by major American tech companies, to identify targets, direct strikes, and monitor the population. While Tel Aviv denies some allegations, journalistic reports and investigations by non-profit organizations paint a very different picture.

Systems Generating Targets… and Automated Kill Decisions

In 2021, the term “The Gospel” entered the lexicon of modern warfare. It was the codename for an AI system used by Israel during its 11-day war against Gaza, which the Israeli army described as “the first AI-based war.”

“The Gospel” analyzes surveillance data, satellite images, and social media content to quickly generate a list of buildings targeted for bombing. Since then, development in this field has accelerated unprecedentedly.

The army also relied on two other programs: “The Chemist,” which sends alerts upon detecting “suspicious movements,” and “Depth of Wisdom,” designed to map Gaza’s tunnel network, both reportedly still in use today.

The most dangerous development was the “Lavender” system, which effectively produces a “kill list” of Palestinians by assessing the likelihood of each person belonging to an armed group. If the probability is high, their name is added to military targets.

According to the Israeli +972 magazine report, the army “relied almost entirely” on this system in the early weeks of the recent war, despite knowing it mistakenly identifies civilians as terrorists. Although human approval was required for its decisions, the report revealed that “verification” often only involved confirming the target was male.

Intelligence officers also referred to another program called “Where’s the Father?” designed to target individuals in their family homes. One officer told the magazine, “The army bombed Hamas members in their homes without hesitation, as a first option, and the system was designed to facilitate that.”

Digital Surveillance in Service of War

AI use was not limited to the battlefield but extended to digital surveillance. In August, The Guardian revealed that Israel stored and recorded Palestinians’ calls via Microsoft’s “Azure” platform.

After widespread protests, the company announced last month it cut some services to an Israeli army unit. Despite Microsoft’s denial of prior knowledge, the report said CEO Satya Nadella met in 2021 with the head of Israeli military intelligence operations to discuss hosting intelligence data on the company’s cloud.

According to an Associated Press investigation, the Israeli army used advanced AI models from OpenAI through Microsoft’s cloud services to translate communications, especially after October 7, 2023, amid increased military operations.

Over the past two years, the war has claimed the lives of more than 67,000 Palestinians, including over 20,000 children. According to a Reuters investigation, more than 1,200 families have been completely wiped out as of March 2025.