Medias, citing knowledgeable sources, said that the Israeli military used artificial intelligence to select bombing targets in Gaza.

The Lavender system was developed after the Hamas terrorist attacks on October 7th. At its peak,Lavender designated 37,000 Palestinians in Gaza as suspected “Hamas militants” and “sanctioned” their killings. As expected, the Israeli Armed Forces denied the existence of such a list of killings.

The spokesman said artificial intelligence was not used to identify suspected terrorists, but did not deny the existence of the Lavender system, which the spokesman called “merely tools for analysts in the process of identifying targets.” In some cases, the officers’ only role in the process was ostensibly to determine whether the target was male.

The system had an accuracy rate of 90%, sources said. Some of the people Lavender identified as targets had names or nicknames identical to those of known Hamas militants. Others were relatives of Hamas operatives or people who used phones that once belonged to Hamas operatives.

Intelligence officers were given sweeping powers when it came to dealing with civilian casualties, people familiar with the matter said. Possible collateral civilian casualties were allowed: 15-20 when targeting low-level Hamas operatives and “hundreds” for senior Hamas officials