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Tel Aviv, 26 April 2025 – According to a report published in The New York Times on Friday, Israel has used artificial intelligence (AI) technologies for combat operations on an unprecedented scale during the Gaza war. In particular, these technologies helped to eliminate Ibrahim Biari, a senior Hamas commander in northern Gaza who was involved in planning the attack on 7 October 2023, Channel 12 reports this.
Search and elimination of Biari
After the events of 7 October, Israeli intelligence tried to locate Biari, who was believed to be hiding in Hamas tunnels. Traditional intelligence methods failed, so the Israeli military turned to a new AI-based technology developed by engineers of the elite 8200 unit a decade ago, but never tested in combat.
According to The New York Times, which cited three Israeli and American officials, the operation included the following stages:
– Audio data analysis: Israel listened to Biari’s conversations and estimated his approximate location using AI audio processing tools.
– Air strikes: Based on the data collected, airstrikes were carried out in the Jabaliya area on 31 October 2023.
– Result: Biari was killed in the Jabaliya refugee camp. According to Hamas, the strike left “400 wounded and dead”. The Israeli military said that the strike was caused by the collapse of a terrorist tunnel located under civilian buildings.
The use of AI in warfare
Since the beginning of the war, Israel has been actively integrating AI into combat operations. In particular, it has used:
– Face recognition technologies: AI helped identify partially hidden or injured faces to confirm the identity of eliminated targets.
– Target analysis: AI systems created lists of potential targets for air strikes.
– Social media analysis: The AI model for Arabic scanned text messages, social media posts, and other data to identify suspicious activity.
These developments are largely the result of the work of the 8200 unit and reservists working for private tech companies such as Google, Microsoft and Meta. However, as The New York Times notes, the hasty introduction of AI has sometimes led to false identifications and arrests.
Challenges and prospects
The use of AI in warfare has been a groundbreaking step for Israel, but has raised questions about the accuracy and ethics of such technologies. Despite the mistakes, the Israeli military continues to improve these tools to increase the efficiency of operations.
