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.”
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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.
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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
Landlords allegedly posting ‘Muslim-only’ apartment ads in violation of country’s equality act: report
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Some landlords in England are apparently advertising “Muslim-only” apartments online, according to a local media report.
An investigation by The Telegraph found that alleged listings posted in London on Facebook, Gumtree and Telegram feature phrases such as “only for Muslims,” “for 2 Muslim boys or 2 Muslim girls,” and “Muslims preferred.”
Other ads appeal to Punjabi and Gujarati speakers, while some job vacancies on the platforms are advertised for men only.
Some listings specify “Hindu only,” in addition to posts that likely use religious subtext by stating: “The house should be alcohol and smoke-free.”
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On Facebook, a company called Roshan Properties posted dozens of listings stating “prefer Muslim boy,” “one double room is available for Muslims,” and “suitable for Punjabi boy.” A Meta spokesman told Fox News Digital that Facebook then removed the company’s page “for violating the platform’s policies on discriminatory practices.”
Apartment buildings in Westminster, London, U.K. (John Keeble/Getty Images)
The ads run afoul of Britain’s Equality Act 2010, which prohibits discrimination based on religion or belief, race and other protected characteristics.
“These adverts are disgusting and anti-British. It goes without saying that there would be a national outrage if the tables were turned,” Robert Jenrick, Reform UK’s economic spokesman, told The Telegraph. “All forms of racism are unacceptable, and no religious group should get a special exemption to discriminate in this way.”
Houses and properties line Cheyne Walk in Chelsea, London, U.K. Some landlords in the city are illegally advertising for “Muslim only” tenants across the city, an investigation by The Telegraph has found. (Richard Baker/In Pictures via Getty Images)
One landlord told The Telegraph to “go away” when asked about an ad for a “Muslims only” room for $1,150, and whether it was available to renters of other faiths.
A spokesperson for Gumtree told the newspaper that the company has clear policies in place that prohibit unlawful discrimination.
On Facebook, a company called Roshan Properties posted dozens of listings stating “prefer Muslim boy,” (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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“We take reports of inappropriate listings very seriously,” the spokesperson said. “The ads referenced appear to relate to private rooms within shared homes, where existing occupants may express preferences about who they live with. This is different from renting out an entire property, which is subject to stricter rules under the Equality Act.”
Telegram did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Europe’s critical raw materials crisis has a partial answer sitting in the waste stream — but the continent has been too slow to see it.
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Dorota Włoch, CEO of Eneris Surowce, was direct: recycling is no longer optional.
Unlike plastics, metals can be recovered and reused indefinitely, making urban mining — the recovery of raw materials from existing products and waste — increasingly valuable, particularly for batteries.
“From recycling, we recover metallic aluminium and so-called black mass, which is a concentrate of metals, mainly cobalt-nickel. These are some of the most valuable battery metals. And batteries are crucial today, not only in the automotive sector, but also in storing energy from renewable sources such as wind and solar,” she said.
‘Europe is 25 years late’
Włoch put the scale of the problem plainly. “Deposits are critical — any machine can be bought, but natural resources are not. They are non-transferable and non-renewable. If we use them, they simply disappear,” she said.
Europe’s belated recognition of that reality has cost it dearly.
“The regulation of critical raw materials came 25 years after other regions of the world had invested heavily in deposits. Europe was too passive. Today we are catching up, but the regulations are often so demanding that countries like Poland have difficulty implementing them.”
Who benefits most from extraction?
Poland holds significant reserves of raw materials critical to the modern economy, such as copper, coking coal, nickel, platinum group metals, helium, rhenium, lead and silver.
But the minerals needed most for the energy transition, such as lithium, cobalt and graphite, exist only in limited quantities, forcing imports.
Arkadiusz Kustra, dean of the faculty of civil engineering and resource management at AGH University of Science and Technology in Kraków, told a panel at the European Economic Congress that awareness of the full supply chain, and who profits from it, was now essential.
He pointed to Serbia as a case study.
“Serbia has lithium deposits and is already in talks with Mercedes or Stellantis,” he said. Belgrade is using that leverage to attract investment in battery factories and car plants, keeping more of the value chain at home.
The goal, Kustra argued, should be regional supply chains that retain added value locally.
“You can earn the least at the beginning and the most from the end customer,” he said.
The bigger obstacle is Chinese dominance.
“Margins in critical raw materials largely go to the Chinese, who control more than 90% of processing and trading, even though they do not own most of the deposits,” he said.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo — among the world’s most resource-rich countries — Chinese entities control around 90% of deposits.
The panel also pointed to growing interest in new supply partnerships, with Poland eyeing assets in the Congo region and the Americas.
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