Ruthless AI targets Palestinian civilians

The horrific killing of people continues. It was officially announced that after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 (local time) and killed 1,200 people, Israel invaded the Gaza Strip and killed 16,015 people as of the 5th. However, the number of Palestinian victims is expected to far exceed this number announced by the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza. This is because the statistics released by the Ministry of Health, which confirms the identity of the dead, do not include victims trapped under the rubble of buildings collapsed due to Israel’s indiscriminate attacks. Recently, hospitals and medical infrastructure have been attacked, leading to a rapid increase in the deaths of doctors and UN and Palestinian officials, making it difficult to even confirm the deaths.

It is surprising that such a large loss of life occurred within two months in the Gaza Strip, where the population is estimated at 2.3 million, but what is even more concerning is the scale of civilian casualties, including children and women. Of the 14,800 Palestinians killed until the 23rd of last month, when the temporary ceasefire began, about 6,000 were children and 4,000 women, accounting for 67% of the total deaths. According to the announcement on the 5th, about 70% of the dead were children and women. A paper in the medical journal ‘Lancet’ that analyzed the Palestinian Ministry of Health report last published on October 26 shows detailed age distribution. According to this paper, 42.8% of those who died were under the age of 19. Among the deceased, 11.5% were children aged 0 to 4, 11.5% were aged 5 to 9, 10.7% were aged 10 to 14, and 9.1% were aged 15 to 19. Among these, the death rate of boys aged 0 to 4 is the second highest after that of men aged 30 to 34. Why are so many children and women being killed in Gaza? As of the 11th of last month, when 11,000 Palestinians were killed, why is ‘family annihilation’ being committed on such a large scale that more than 312 families lost 10 or more members? As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared, was this an ‘unintentional damage’ incurred in the process of carrying out ‘Operation Steel Sword’ to eliminate Hamas? Are the Israeli military intentionally committing murder and destruction, seeing not only Hamas agents but all Palestinians as enemies? The analytical reporting of ‘+972 Magazine’, an independent Israeli-Palestinian media outlet, provides clues to finding the answer. The Israel Defense Forces are known to use the artificial intelligence (AI) system ‘Havsora’ (meaning ‘gospel’ in Hebrew) to calculate attack targets. Mass killings have become possible because tasks that were previously done manually by humans can now be done automatically and in an instant. Israel’s ‘Target Management Bureau’, newly established in 2019, is using Havsora to produce attack targets at a rate incomparable to the past. In the past, it took a year to select 50 targets, but now it is possible to produce 100 new targets per day, and it is known that the Israel Defense Forces’ offensive capabilities cannot keep up with this. Even though Habsora is a low-level Hamas agent, his home is sometimes set as the target of large-scale attacks. Since the attack targets the officer’s home rather than the unit where he works, civilians who are not involved in the war are attacked. As a result, entire families are exterminated simply because they are Hamas agents, and even people who have no connection to Hamas are exterminated simply because they are neighbors. Habsora is known to induce attacks on families not affiliated with Hamas because, unlike humans, it does not go through a detailed verification process. Additionally, even if Hamas operatives were meeting or just passing by, the location could become a target of attack. Considering that Hamas was ruling the Gaza Strip, virtually anywhere in Gaza could be a target of attack.

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The background to the Israel Defense Forces becoming a ‘killing machine’ equipped with artificial intelligence is the Israeli doctrine that aims to harm civilians. According to the ‘Dahiya Doctrine’, Israel must use its overwhelming and incomparable military power to attack civilian facilities and government infrastructure to force civilians to dissociate from Hamas. Separating civilians from guerrillas is an old anti-guerrilla operation, but the big difference in the Dahiya Doctrine is that the goal is not to separate civilians and introduce them to strategic villages, but to attack large-scale residential areas where civilians live. there is. To this end, the Israel Defense Forces classifies attack targets into four types: tactical targets, underground targets, ‘power targets’, and civilian targets. Power targets are not directly related to Hamas’ military activities, but are facilities that will have a significant impact on Palestinian civilians. It is known. In this attack, we are focusing on power targets such as large buildings, government facilities, and temples. Additionally, civilian residences are being attacked indiscriminately. They also bombed the home of a Palestinian journalist’s family, killing 21 members of the family. Immediately after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 of this year, the Israeli government declared that it would respond completely differently from the past. And Prime Minister Netanyahu stepped forward and declared the ‘eradicate of Hamas.’ Reflecting this policy, on October 9, Israeli Defense Ministry spokesman Daniel Hagari declared, “The emphasis is on destruction, not accuracy.” Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, who developed the Dahiya Doctrine, is a member of Netanyahu’s cabinet. In accordance with this policy of the current Israeli government, which includes even more dangerous far-right figures, the Israel Defense Forces are carrying out a very ‘lenient’ operation to kill civilians. In the past, even when attacking civilian facilities, warnings were sent in advance to give civilians time to evacuate, but now they are attacking civilian facilities and residential areas without prior warning. For example, on October 25, a 12th-floor apartment building in Gaza City was bombed without prior warning, and about 120 residents were crushed to death under the rubble of the collapsed apartment building. They even attacked refugee camps, drawing criticism from Amnesty International. Ultimately, the mass killings currently taking place in the Gaza Strip can be said to be the result of a collaboration between an artificial intelligence called Havsora, the Dahiya Doctrine, and the policies of the current Israeli government. The United States and Western Europe, which have supported and fostered the Israeli government and defense forces, will not be free from responsibility. (This article was published in ‘+972 Magazine’ Knight of Yuval AbrahamIt is revealed that there was a lot of dependence on . The original text contains several photos of damage in the Gaza Strip.) Seo Jae-jeong | Professor, Department of Politics and International Relations, International Christian University, Japan