In summary
Since 2023, the Israeli military has increasingly relied on artificial intelligence to select targets in Gaza, using systems such as Gospel and Lavender. These platforms aggregate massive amounts of data and produce lists of human or infrastructure targets at an unprecedented rate, sometimes hundreds of targets in a matter of days, where human analysts would have taken months. Israeli authorities claim that these tools increase the accuracy of strikes and reduce collateral damage by “prioritizing” military targets. But investigations conducted in 2024 by +972 Magazine, Local Call, The Guardian, and other media outlets report much more aggressive use, with lists of approximately 37,000 people marked as potential targets and a claimed margin of error of up to 10%. These systems were reportedly used with minimal human oversight, in a context where very high levels of civilian casualties were accepted from the outset. The controversy centers not only on the technology itself, but on how it accelerates the tempo of strikes, dilutes individual accountability, and reconfigures the practice of military targeting in the age of AI.
The acknowledged use of AI in targeting in Gaza
Israel no longer hides its use of AI systems to identify and prioritize targets in the Gaza Strip, particularly since the war that began after October 7, 2023. As early as 2021, the Israeli army was already referring to a previous operation as the “first AI war,” mentioning tools to assist in target selection.
The Gospel system is presented by Israeli officials as an analysis platform that ingests multiple intelligence data—interceptions, imagery, electronic signals, databases—to recommend targets: command infrastructure, weapons depots, rocket launchers, firing positions. According to experts interviewed, a group of 20 intelligence officers previously produced 50 to 100 targets in nearly 300 days; with Gospel and associated systems, the same volume of 200 targets could be generated in 10 to 12 days, a factor of acceleration of at least 50 times.
In the first weeks of the 2023-2024 campaign, the army claimed more than 22,000 strikes in Gaza, with up to about 250 targets hit per day, compared to only 1,500 targets hit in 2021, 200 of which came from Gospel.
AI is not the only factor behind this intensification, but it has been explicitly cited as a capability multiplier.