World
Israeli-deployed AI in Gaza likely helps IDF reduce civilian casualties, expert says
After loudly touting the use of artificial intelligence (AI) during their 11-day conflict against Hamas in 2021, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have been fairly tight-lipped about the AI systems they’ve employed in the post-Oct. 7 Gaza battlespace.
Numerous media outlets have speculated that Israel’s AI platforms are being used recklessly, but Blaise Misztal, Vice President for Policy at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA), told Fox News Digital that he believes Israel is using AI-powered drone swarms, mapping drones and targeting systems as a means to minimize civilian casualties as they seek out Hamas terrorists hiding among the populace or holed up in tunnel systems laced beneath civilian architecture.
Misztal says that available evidence implies drones are a “near constant companion for ground troops as they’re maneuvering through Gaza,” with the IDF telling JINSA researchers that “each unit has its own mini-Air Force” supporting troop movements.
A number of AI-powered drones may be mapping the underground tunnels built below Gaza, or protecting those who are traversing them as they seek out terrorists or hostages. Iris, a ground-based, throwable unit manufactured by Elbit Systems “can enter small and confined spaces, above or underground, to explore hazardous areas while relaying intelligence and reconnaissance information in real-time.”
ISRAEL’S ADVANCED MILITARY TECHNOLOGY ON FULL DISPLAY DURING IRAN’S ATTACK
An Israeli army soldier launches a drone from a field in southern Israel along the border with the Gaza Strip on Jan. 24. (Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images)
Ghost Robotics manufactures the Vision-60, a ground drone that it says can “continuously push the limits to improve its ability to walk, run, crawl, climb, and eventually swim in complex environments” to “keep our warfighters, workers, and K9s out of harm’s way.”
Xtend UAV systems are also deployed in the Gaza theater after initially being developed to target Hamas’ incendiary balloons attempting to enter Israeli airspace. Xtend’s Griffon Counter UAV can be used to find and kill rogue drones, an important task as Iran and its proxies have deployed or trained to deploy drones against Israel.
ISRAEL’S ADVANCED MILITARY TECHNOLOGY ON FULL DISPLAY DURING IRAN’S ATTACK
The capability to “be deployed in parallel” may be a reference to the utilization of drone swarms, groups of drones which communicate with one another to carry out a directive using AI rather than human operators. Drone swarms were used in 30 sorties during Israel’s 2021 war, the Times of Israel reported. They helped Israel identify rocket launch sites used by Hamas.
The main AI-empowered devices helping Israel avoid unnecessary civilian casualties are targeting systems known as “Gospel” and “Lavender.” While numerous media outlets have reported on these targeting systems, Misztal says many have “fundamentally misunderstood” how they work. Onlookers have described these AI systems as having the ability to both determine and engage targets. Misztal says that the targeting systems have a “man-machine loop,” in which first a human analyst, and then an IDF lawyer, decide whether a target receives final approval.
An Israeli military helicopter and drone fly above the southern border area with the Gaza Strip on May 30 amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas terrorists. (Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images)
Jonathan Conricus, Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and former IDF spokesman, also told Fox News Digital that “while the reliance on AI and technology is growing, Israeli policy mandates human decision-making at main junctions.”
WHAT IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)?
According to Misztal, the “Gospel” system identifies hard targets like “buildings, weapons storage facilities, and rocket launchers,” while the “Lavender” system utilizes facial recognition to identify Hamas leaders and fighters.
The real boon in utilizing these targeting systems is their ability to sift through the “constant streams of data” collected by Israel’s multitude of air and ground assets, including the new AI-enabled Oron spy plane. Learned patterns help the systems determine likely targets. “If you can bring in the precision that machine learning enables you to do rather than just having human eyes on it, that is helpful in narrowing down what are likely targets, and minimizing mistakes,” Misztal said.
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IDF forces are seen operating in Rafah, a city in the Gaza Strip. (IDF Spokesman’s Office)
Data from Gospel and information derived from AI-powered mapping drones have likely allowed the IDF to avoid situations like one Misztal said they encountered in 2021 while fighting Hamas from the air. According to Misztal, an Israeli bomb strike on a poorly-constructed tunnel resulted in the collapse of the residential building built atop the tunnel, causing civilian casualties.
With ground troops now engaged and tunnel networks better understood, Misztal says the IDF is able to “find strategic intersections between tunnels” that they can “block so that they become unusable” without causing possible collapse of civilian structures atop the terror hideouts. “That mapping process allows them to be much more precise,” Misztal concluded.
Officers utilize a range of information to identify and locate targets. (IDF Spokesperson’s Unit)
Misztal believes Lavender’s utilization shows how much care Israel takes to keep civilians from the battlespace. “We’ve heard of Israel using facial recognition technology as they’re screening people, civilians who are moving between different parts of Gaza” when the IDF “is creating safe zones and telling people to evacuate, and guarding them while they evacuate because Hamas wants to keep them from leaving their homes so that they can remain as human shields,” he said. Facial recognition in these situations allows the IDF “to make sure that those protection measures are not being exploited by Hamas fighters.”
Despite remaining mostly quiet about their use, Misztal said Israel’s use of its array of AI-powered systems has “become a normalized part of their operating process” since 2021. When facing a new kind of war after Oct. 7, Misztal said the IDF “told JINSA researchers about how they were uncertain of what they would find on the ground” in Gaza, “but as they got better at understanding the layout, as they got better at deploying their assets, like drones and other surveillance capabilities, they became much more capable of operating surgically.”
Palestinian Hamas terrorists are seen during a military show in the Bani Suheila district on July 20, 2017, in Gaza City, Gaza. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
The Associated Press last week released a report that corroborates Misztal’s observation that utilizing AI has led to lower civilian casualties. Through an analysis of Gaza Ministry of Health data, long questioned by researchers, the AP found that the “proportion of Palestinian women and children being killed in the Israel-Hamas war appears to have declined sharply.” The AP admitted that the shift “went unnoticed for months by the U.N. and much of the media.”
In addition to reducing casualties, AI has enabled a high level of operations that would otherwise require vast amounts of human capital. According to Conricus, “Without the extensive use of tech and AI to automate and streamline complex or resource intense processes, Israel would need to multiply its intelligence collection and control infrastructure, which is frankly not a viable option. Thus, AI and advanced tech allows Israel to face the multitude of threats within existing manpower and resource limitations.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
World
Trump says Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, second in command of ISIS globally, killed in US-Nigerian operation
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President Donald Trump announced late Friday that U.S. and Nigerian forces carried out an operation that killed a global ISIS leader.
Trump identified the terrorist as Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, whom he described as ISIS’s second-in-command globally.
“Tonight, at my direction, brave American forces and the Armed Forces of Nigeria flawlessly executed a meticulously planned and very complex mission to eliminate the most active terrorist in the world from the battlefield,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
“Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, second in command of ISIS globally, thought he could hide in Africa, but little did he know we had sources who kept us informed on what he was doing,” Trump continued. “He will no longer terrorize the people of Africa, or help plan operations to target Americans.”
100 US TROOPS LAND IN NIGERIA AS ISLAMIC MILITANTS THREATEN WEST AFRICA REGIONAL SECURITY
President Donald Trump sits at a table monitoring military operations during Operation Epic Fury against Iran at the White House in Washington, D.C., on March 2. (The White House via X Account/Anadolu/Getty Images)
Trump also thanked the Nigerian government for its cooperation in the mission.
“With his removal, ISIS’s global operation is greatly diminished,” he added.
Additional details surrounding the mission were not immediately available.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment.
US MILITARY IN SYRIA CARRIES OUT 10 STRIKES ON MORE THAN 30 ISIS TARGETS: PHOTOS
The announcement comes after U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said it carried out multiple strikes against more than 30 ISIS targets in Syria in February as part of a joint military effort to “sustain relentless military pressure on remnants from the terrorist network.”
CENTCOM said U.S. forces struck ISIS infrastructure and weapons-storage targets using fixed-wing, rotary-wing and unmanned aircraft.
DEADLY STRIKE ON US TROOPS TESTS TRUMP’S COUNTER-ISIS PLAN — AND HIS TRUST IN SYRIA’S NEW LEADER
The U.S. military carried out ten strikes against more than 30 ISIS targets in Syria following a December ambush that killed U.S. troops. (CENTCOM)
Trump told reporters on Jan. 27 that he had a “great conversation” with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
“All of the things having to do with Syria in that area are working out very, very well,” he said at the time. “So, we are very happy about it.”
CENTCOM announced in February that more than 50 ISIS terrorists had been killed or captured and more than 100 ISIS infrastructure targets struck during two months of targeted operations in Syria.
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The U.S. launched Operation Hawkeye Strike in response to an ISIS ambush that killed two U.S. service members and an American interpreter Dec. 13, 2025, in Palmyra, Syria.
Fox News Digital’s Ashley J. DiMella contributed to this report.
Lebanon’s Ministry of Health said Israeli attacks have killed 2,951 people since March 2 with at least 8,988 wounded.
Published On 16 May 2026
World
Hamas used sexual violence ‘deliberately and systematically’ on Oct 7, commission report finds
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WARNING: This article includes graphic and disturbing accounts from the October 7 massacre in Israel.
Hamas and its Palestinian collaborators used sexual and gender-based violence “deliberately and systematically” as an inherent part of a wider strategy of the 2023 massacres in southern Israel, according to a report released Tuesday by the Civil Commission on Oct. 7 Crimes Against Women and Children.
The Israeli nonprofit said its investigation documented evidence of abuse at multiple sites during the Oct. 7 terror invasion, including the Nova Music Festival, kibbutzim near the Gaza border, Israel Defense Forces bases, among hostages in captivity and in the condition of recovered bodies showing signs consistent with sexual violence.
According to the report, investigators identified at least 13 recurring forms of abuse, including rape, sexual torture, shootings directed at victims’ genital areas and abuse carried out after death.
ISRAEL’S QUEST FOR JUSTICE EXPOSES HAMAS’ SYSTEMATIC SEXUAL VIOLENCE CAMPAIGN DURING OCTOBER 7 MASSACRE
A Hamas terrorist is seen walking around a residential neighborhood in southern Israel in undated bodycam footage released by the Israel Defense Forces. The footage was shown to foreign correspondents on Oct. 16, 2023, as part of a 40-minute reel compiled from the Hamas attack on Oct. 7. (Israel Defense Forces/AP)
Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy, founder and chair of the Civil Commission and a principal co-author of the report, told Fox News Digital that the greatest challenge in compiling the findings was the team’s repeated exposure to graphic material and the trauma associated with reviewing it on a regular basis.
“We had to not only collect materials, but also review and analyze it alongside forensic experts while witnessing human suffering at its worst,” Elkayam-Levy said. “What motivated us was the denial, the hesitation and the questioning. We wanted to ensure that the world knows what happened to the victims.
“For us, it is a final act of justice for the victims,” she added.
The report also detailed cases in which sexual violence was inflicted in front of or involving family members, including one incident in which relatives were allegedly forced to carry out acts on each other.
FREED HOSTAGE ROM BRASLAVSKI DETAILS ABUSE, STARVATION DURING 738 DAYS IN GAZA CAPTIVITY
People visit the site of the Nova music festival in Re’im, southern Israel, where revelers were killed in a cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023. The visit took place on Jan. 14, 2024, marking 100 days since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas. (Leo Correa/AP)
It further accused Hamas and allied perpetrators of using videos, digital platforms and social media as tools to magnify psychological harm, spread fear and publicize the attacks, including by distributing sexualized material.
Elkayam-Levy said she hopes the findings will not remain confined to academics, human rights organizations or activists, but will also be studied by counterterrorism and national security experts to better understand and confront such atrocities.
“We cannot prevent what we do not fully understand,” Elkayam-Levy said. “No single prosecution could ever capture the full magnitude of these crimes in the way this report does. It is therefore critical that policymakers, decision-makers, members of Congress and senators find ways to formally recognize these findings and hold hearings so we can begin addressing this issue. We want the findings of this report to receive formal institutional recognition.”
The report, Elkayam-Levy noted, underscores that victims of the Oct. 7 atrocities came from 52 countries, highlighting the global scope and impact of the attack.
Witness testimony cited in the report included an account of a woman being sexually assaulted before being beheaded. Another witness described seeing a woman dragged from a vehicle, pinned against a wall, repeatedly raped and then stabbed, with the assault allegedly continuing after her death.
In another case, a witness described discovering the body of a man whose genitals had been severed, lying beside the body of a woman holding them, in what the report described as an apparent effort to degrade and humiliate the victims.
A Hamas terrorist is seen walking around a residential neighborhood in southern Israel in undated bodycam footage released by the Israel Defense Forces amid the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. (Israel Defense Forces/AP)
JEWISH DEM LAWMAKER PANS NY TIMES, SUGGESTS PAPER ON ‘HAMAS’ PAYROLL’ FOR PALESTINIAN PRISONER DOG RAPE REPORT
Investigators said some female victims were found naked or partially unclothed, with evidence of severe mutilation and objects including grenades, nails and household tools inserted into their bodies. The report also cited gunshot wounds, cuts and burn injuries concentrated on intimate areas.
The report said some female bodies brought to morgues showed broken pelvises or legs, bloodied underwear and additional trauma to the abdomen or groin.
Former hostages, both women and men, have also testified to rape, sexual torture and other forms of abuse during abduction or captivity, according to the report. It said some female captives reported sexual assaults while receiving treatment in Gaza hospitals for injuries sustained during the attacks.
A bloodied handprint stains a wall inside a house in the Nir Oz kibbutz near the Gaza border after a Hamas attack days earlier. (Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images)
Male hostages likewise described sexual abuse while in captivity, including assaults in showers and incidents carried out under armed threat while victims were naked, the report said. One former hostage recounted being sexually assaulted when a captor forcibly rubbed his genitals against the victim’s anus.
Last month, former hostage Rom Braslavski recounted the abuse he said he endured during captivity in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital.
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“They would hit me with whatever they had on hand. I underwent severe torture, bondage and sexual abuse. Everything they could do to me, they did. My body is still covered in scars. After four months of torture, I was clinically dead, rolling my eyes and passing out. They decided to stop the violence and brought doctors to treat me with injections and gave me food again,” he said.
The report said sexual and gender-based violence was “widespread and systematic” and constituted an “integral component” of both the Oct. 7 attacks and the subsequent treatment of captives, while calling the prosecution of such crimes an “urgent” priority to be pursued through international accountability mechanisms.
A soldier of the Military Rabbinate unit opens a container holding bodies killed during the Hamas attack on Israel’s southern border as identification continues at the Shura army base in Ramle, Israel, on Oct. 24, 2023. (Amir Levy/Getty Images)
Among its recommendations, the commission called for targeted sanctions against individuals and entities accused of carrying out or materially supporting the Oct. 7 attack and its aftermath. It also urged action against what it described as denial, minimization or politicization of the sexual crimes committed during the massacre and in captivity.
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“The Commission further recommends that Israel adopt a comprehensive gender strategy within its prosecutorial framework and establish a specialized chamber or panel of judges dedicated to the prosecution of sexual and gender-based crimes committed on October 7th and during captivity,” the report said.
Elkayam-Levy said the report has received widespread international attention, including front-page coverage in U.S. and global media outlets. “We feel the discussion has shifted from questioning whether these crimes occurred to examining their consequences,” she said. “There is now a substantial legal evidentiary foundation preserved in a secure archive that cannot be denied.”
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