Gaza Herald – What started as tech built to make life easier has been turned into a machine for war. Artificial intelligence now runs the core of modern militaries: managing battles, predicting threats, flying drones, and picking who gets bombed.
Since Israel’s assault on Gaza began in October 2023, mounting evidence shows AI systems have been central to choosing targets and running mass strikes. The use of these systems has triggered global alarm about the ethics of algorithmic war, violations of international law, and the tech industry’s role in mass violence.
By day 1,000 of the war, AI, cloud computing, and big data weren’t side tools anymore. They were the backbone of Israel’s military in Gaza and, increasingly, in its attacks across the region.
The AI Systems Picking Who Lives and Dies
Reporting by journalists and analysts shows the Israeli military has plugged in several AI platforms: Lavender, Where’s Daddy?, and The Gospel.
Despite the bland names, these systems are built to ingest massive amounts of surveillance and personal data to spit out kill lists at a scale humans never could.
Lavender, reportedly built by Unit 8200, scores Palestinians on how likely they are to be linked to Hamas or other armed groups. Leaks say it assigned risk scores to thousands of people. Those scores were then used to approve strikes, often with little to no human oversight. Reports also claim Israel set high civilian casualty “tolerances” even for low-level targets.
“Where’s Daddy?”: Bombing People in Their Homes
Where’s Daddy? Allegedly tracks a target until he enters his home or workplace, then alerts the military.
According to investigations, the strikes on family homes the moment someone walked in. The result: entire families wiped out to kill one person.
The Gospel works differently. It mass-produces targets for infrastructure, buildings, and launch sites. It let Israel jump from approving dozens of targets a year to hundreds in days. It also reportedly suggests when to strike and how much firepower to use.
Law, Ethics, and No Accountability
Legal experts say these systems blow past the basic rules of war: distinction and proportionality. And because AI decisions are a black box, it’s nearly impossible to know who’s responsible when civilians are killed.
In March 2025, The Guardian reported that Unit 8200 built a ChatGPT-style language model trained on 100 billion words scraped from Palestinian surveillance data. The goal: better intel, faster targeting.
Big Tech’s Role in the Killing Machine
Palantir is one name that keeps coming up. Co-founder Alex Karp has voiced strong support for Israel. Reports say Palantir deepened its work with Israel after Oct 2023 and signed a strategic deal in early 2024 to support wartime operations.
Israel has also deployed surveillance drones, facial recognition, and live databases to track movement and ID people in real time. Human rights groups say this has turned Gaza into a lab for militarized surveillance, with devastating costs for privacy and civilian life.
The Cloud That Runs the War
Cloud computing is now the operating system for war. It links drones, satellites, comms, and AI into one network that processes and shares battlefield data in seconds.
The Institute for Palestine Studies notes this makes private tech companies central to modern warfare. Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and OpenAI have all faced questions over services to the Israeli military.
In Feb. 2025, AP reported that Microsoft and OpenAI provided AI models and cloud infrastructure used by the Israeli army, reigniting debate about corporate responsibility in war crimes.
Microsoft Backtracks, But Not Really
Microsoft later admitted it gave Azure and AI services to the Israeli military during the war, but claimed it found no evidence of use against civilians.
In Sept. 2025, after an internal review, it said it had suspended some services to one Israeli unit. Reuters and The Guardian reported that Unit 8200’s access to certain Azure/AI tools was hit. But Microsoft’s overall contracts with Israeli state institutions stayed in place.
In May 2026, The Guardian said the head of Microsoft Israel would step down after another internal probe into dealings with Unit 8200.
The Human Toll
Since Oct 2023, AI-driven strikes have fueled one of the deadliest assaults in Gaza’s history.
Palestinian health officials report over 73,000 Palestinians killed, most of them civilians. That includes 21,500+ children and 12,500+ women. 173,000+ injured.
Israel now controls 80%+ of Gaza. It dropped an estimated 223,000 tons of explosives. 90% of civilian infrastructure is damaged or destroyed.
Thousands of families have been erased from the civil registry. Hospitals and schools have collapsed. It’s one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes of the 21st century.
And much of it was coordinated by algorithms.
