Recent arrests made by Israeli forces over the past months have revealed that they maintain a "scan" of the faces of Gazans passing through checkpoints. The Israeli forces use an artificial intelligence program that "recognizes faces, collects their images, and retains them in an archive or index within seconds." These advanced programs can also identify people's names in a matter of seconds. This was disclosed by Israeli intelligence officers and military officials, who noted that Israel began using this program since late last year.
Initially, they explained, this technology was used to search for Israeli prisoners held in the Gaza Strip since October 7; however, it later expanded to investigate and search for anyone associated with armed Palestinian groups. The most concerning aspect is that the collection and archiving of Gazans' images are done without their knowledge or consent. Additionally, this technology can sometimes mistakenly classify certain civilians as Hamas operatives, according to an informed officer.
The responsible party for managing this program is the "Israeli Military Intelligence Unit and Unit 8200." The company that developed this technology or the facial recognition program is the Israeli firm "Coresight," which relies on an extensive archive of images captured by drones over the Gaza Strip or even images available on Google.
It is noteworthy that the first time Israel hinted at using artificial intelligence in its war against Gaza was in January when military spokesperson Daniel Hagari stated that Israeli forces operate above and below ground. A military official explained that this technology is used to down Palestinian drones and to create a visualization or map of the tunnels dug by Hamas underground. Several observers and analysts have previously warned that the conflict in Gaza has allowed Israel to employ many artificial intelligence technologies beyond facial recognition and land scanning, including aspects related to weapons and new military technologies.
