The Israeli army has marked tens of thousands of Gazans as suspects for assassination, using an AI targeting system with little human oversight and a permissive policy for casualties.
by Yuval Abraham, +972 Magazine
In 2021, a book titled “The Human-Machine Team: How to Create Synergy Between Human and Artificial Intelligence That Will Revolutionize Our World” was released in English under the pen name “Brigadier General Y.S.” In it, the author — a man who we confirmed to be the current commander of the elite Israeli intelligence unit 8200 — makes the case for designing a special machine that could rapidly process massive amounts of data to generate thousands of potential “targets” for military strikes in the heat of a war. Such technology, he writes, would resolve what he described as a “human bottleneck for both locating the new targets and decision-making to approve the targets.”
Such a machine, it turns out, actually exists. A new investigation by +972 Magazine and Local Call reveals that the Israeli army has developed an artificial intelligence-based program known as “Lavender,” unveiled here for the first time. According to six Israeli intelligence officers, who have all served in the army during the current war on the Gaza Strip and had first-hand involvement with the use of AI to generate targets for assassination, Lavender has played a central role in the unprecedented bombing of Palestinians, especially during the early stages of the war. In fact, according to the sources, its influence on the military’s operations was such that they essentially treated the outputs of the AI machine “as if it were a human decision.”

Formally, the Lavender system is designed to mark all suspected operatives in the military wings of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), including low-ranking ones, as potential bombing targets. The sources told +972 and Local Call that, during the first weeks of the war, the army almost completely relied on Lavender, which clocked as many as 37,000 Palestinians as suspected militants — and their homes — for possible air strikes.
Recent Posts
With Food Banks in ‘Disaster Response Mode,’ Supreme Court Lets Trump Pause SNAP Funds
November 8, 2025
Take Action Now This is insane,” said US Rep. Pramila Jayapal. “Trump is jumping through hoops to block SNAP.”By Jake Johnson, Common Dreams The…
How Many People Do You Have to Kill to Get a Peace Prize?
November 7, 2025
Take Action Now The Nobel Peace Prize is going to a Venezuelan advocate for deadly sanctions against — and an invasion of — Venezuela.By David…
New York’s Largest ICE Prison Dogged By Allegations Of Shoddy Medical Care
November 6, 2025
Take Action Now “I shouldn’t have lost my fingers,” one detainee said of ICE guards’ failure to get him the care a doctor prescribed.By J. Dale…
Zohran’s Victory Proves That Public Campaign Financing Works
November 6, 2025
Take Action Now Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral victory shows that we don’t just need better candidates and stronger messaging. We need public campaign…




