Israel and Accountability in Gaza

An article in the Economist comments that ON MAY 14TH 1948, in its Declaration of Independence, Israel embraced universal human rights “irrespective of religion, race or sex”.

Gaza Casualties chart

(https://ponderpatterns.blogspot.com/2024/05/numbers-propaganda.html)

 The Economist Leaders article on the War in Gaza explains “Why Israel must hold itself to account.” The founding vision of Israel and the laws of war are under attack in Gaza. In its bombed and barren landscape the fate of both lies in the balance.

Gaza shows how this vision is failing. The laws of war are being broken and the system for upholding them is not working. However, that failure does not exonerate Israel from having to answer for its actions in Gaza, including war crimes and crimes against humanity. Indeed, its foundations as a liberal democracy demand that it must.

Worse, Israel’s government, despite its duties as an occupying power, has used the distribution of food to civilians as a weapon against Hamas. It continued even when, as predicted, that led to starvation and the death of desperate people queuing for survival rations. By corralling civilians in pockets as it systematically bulldozes their homes, Israel is also practising ethnic cleansing.

 

  It is not too late. The urgent test is whether Israel floods Gaza with food and medicine in order to stop the incipient famine. It should also agree on a ceasefire, which will enable it to recover its hostages. The second, longer-term test will be whether it sets up a truly independent commission of inquiry after the war ends, probably under a new prime minister. (The Economist Leaders Article, 2025)

David Gritten in London and Imogen Foulkes in Geneva reporting for the BBC comment that a United Nations commission of inquiry says Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. 

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the unprecedented Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage. At least 64,905 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

Most of the population has also been repeatedly displaced; more than 90% of homes are estimated to be damaged or destroyed; the healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene systems have collapsed; and UN-backed food security experts have declared a famine in Gaza City.

The 72-page document alleges that Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces have committed and are continuing to commit four of the five acts of genocide defined under the 1948 Genocide Convention against a national, ethnic, racial or religious group - in this case, Palestinians in Gaza:

• Killing members of the group through attacks on protected objects; targeting civilians and other protected persons; and the deliberate infliction of conditions causing deaths

• Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group through direct attacks on civilians and protected objects; severe mistreatment of detainees; forced displacement; and environmental destruction

• Deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the group in whole or in part through destruction of structures and land essential to Palestinians; destruction and denial of access to medical services; forced displacement; blocking essential aid, water, electricity and fuel from reaching Palestinians; reproductive violence; and specific conditions impacting children

• Imposing measures intended to prevent births through the December 2023 attack on Gaza's largest fertility clinic, reportedly destroying around 4,000 embryos and 1,000 sperm samples and unfertilised eggs (Gritten & Foulkes, n.d.)

William Christou in Beirut and agency reporters for the Guardian reveal that the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said sanctions were imposed on the rights monitors for having “directly engaged in efforts by the International Criminal Court to investigate, arrest, detain or prosecute Israeli nationals, without Israel’s consent”.

Days earlier, the world’s leading genocide scholars’ association said Israel’s actions in Gaza met the legal definition of genocide, an accusation Israel has denied.

The groups asked the ICC in November 2023 to investigate Israeli airstrikes on densely populated civilian areas of Gaza, the siege of the territory and displacement of the population.

Since filing the lawsuit, the humanitarian conditions in Gaza have worsened significantly, with the territory facing a starvation crisis and more than 80% of its infrastructure destroyed by Israeli bombing. At that point, nearly 10,000 Palestinians had been killed in Gaza – the number of dead is now more than 64,000.

Two weeks ago, an Israeli strike on Nasser hospital in southern Gaza that killed 22 people, including five journalists, raised further questions about Israel’s conduct in the strip.

An investigation released by the Associated Press on Friday cast doubt on Israel’s explanation that its forces had struck a position that was well known as a journalists’ gathering point because they believed a camera on the roof was being used by Hamas to observe troops. The AP said it had gathered new evidence indicating the camera in question actually belonged to a Reuters video journalist who was killed in the initial strike.

The agency noted it had repeatedly informed the army its journalists were stationed there, and that its investigation showed that troops used high-explosive tank shells to strike the hospital, instead of more precise guided weapons that might have resulted in fewer casualties.

 

It said that soon after the first strike, Israeli forces had hit the same position again, after medical and emergency workers had reached the scene to treat the injured. The timing was reminiscent of the “double-tap” technique used by al-Qaida and by forces of the former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, and others.

The three rights organisations released a joint statement condemning the sanctions, which they described as “immoral, illegal and undemocratic”. (Christou, 2025)

Anna Ahronheim,  in an article for the Jerusalem Post, interviewed a former IDF senior officer. After years of silence, the officer, once a key architect of the IDF’s digital transformation, explained how the IDF rewired the battlefield for the first AI war.

 

Seven years ago, the IDF was still shackled to legacy systems, using fax machines, outdated servers, and siloed intelligence. 

Lt.-Gen. (ret.) Aviv Kohavi, the chief of staff at the time, envisioned something radically different: a battlefield where cyber, air, sea, and ground forces operated as one, connected by real-time data and precision targeting. The digital transformation of the IDF was one of Kohavi’s top priorities when he began his term – not only to further strengthen the military but to provide the most advanced capabilities for its troops.

 

Citing the Yom Kippur War, the former senior officer said troops “fought pretty much alone, with support being slow to arrive.” But with the digital transformation, he said, ground troops can call in the target, and it would be struck by the platform best suited to take it out a short time later.

“We implemented AI in order to differentiate between civilians and terrorists,” he said. “We harness AI and technology to focus on the hostile forces.”

 

Critics also say the use of AI to reduce civilian deaths is highly contested, with several investigations finding that AI systems have wrongly identified targets after using faulty data and flawed algorithms.

But the former senior officer pushed back hard on that, calling it “a lie.”

“AI and technology allow you to be more moral,” he said. “Intelligence and precision together allow for a different moral standard. We are implementing and incorporating AI in order to differentiate between civilians and terrorists, and the main rule in international law is the principle of differentiation between fighters and noncombatants.” (Ahronheim, 2025)

Yuval Abraham, a journalist and filmmaker based in Jerusalem, in an article for +972 magazine, in partnership with Local Call, reports that the Israeli army has marked tens of thousands of Gazans as suspects for assassination, using an AI targeting system with little human oversight and a permissive policy for casualties.

A new investigation by +972 Magazine and Local Call reveals that the Israeli army has developed an artificial intelligence-based program known as “Lavender.” 

Formally, the Lavender system is designed to mark all suspected operatives in the military wings of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), including low-ranking ones, as potential bombing targets. The sources told +972 and Local Call that, during the first weeks of the war, the army almost completely relied on Lavender, which clocked as many as 37,000 Palestinians as suspected militants — and their homes — for possible air strikes.

“We were not interested in killing [Hamas] operatives only when they were in a military building or engaged in a military activity,” A., an intelligence officer, told +972 and Local Call. “On the contrary, the IDF bombed them in homes without hesitation, as a first option. It’s much easier to bomb a family’s home. The system is built to look for them in these situations.”

The Lavender machine joins another AI system, “The Gospel,” about which information was revealed in a previous investigation by +972 and Local Call in November 2023, as well as in the Israeli military’s own publications. A fundamental difference between the two systems is in the definition of the target: whereas The Gospel marks buildings and structures that the army claims militants operate from, Lavender marks people — and puts them on a kill list.

In addition, according to the sources, when it came to targeting alleged junior militants marked by Lavender, the army preferred to only use unguided missiles, commonly known as “dumb” bombs (in contrast to “smart” precision bombs), which can destroy entire buildings on top of their occupants and cause significant casualties. “You don’t want to waste expensive bombs on unimportant people — it’s very expensive for the country and there’s a shortage [of those bombs],” said C., one of the intelligence officers. Another source said that they had personally authorized the bombing of “hundreds” of private homes of alleged junior operatives marked by Lavender, with many of these attacks killing civilians and entire families as “collateral damage.”

B., a senior officer who used Lavender, echoed to +972 and Local Call that in the current war, officers were not required to independently review the AI system’s assessments, in order to save time and enable the mass production of human targets without hindrances.

 

“Everything was statistical, everything was neat — it was very dry,” B. said. He noted that this lack of supervision was permitted despite internal checks showing that Lavender’s calculations were considered accurate only 90 percent of the time; in other words, it was known in advance that 10 percent of the human targets slated for assassination were not members of the Hamas military wing at all. (Abraham, n.d.)

The superior technology of the IDF has probably contributed to a reduced casualty count for the Israeli forces in the war in Gaza. The horrendous death toll in the Palestinian community raises serious concerns about the possible lack of attention to Discrimination and Proportionality that is a requirement under International Humanitarian Law (IHL). Armed Forces with sophisticated tools that could be used to reduce collateral casualties are more accountable for war crimes that result when techniques to reduce civilian harm are ignored. 

References

Abraham, Y. (2024, April 3). 'Lavender': The AI machine directing Israel's bombing spree in Gaza. +972 Magazine. Retrieved September 17, 2025, from https://www.972mag.com/lavender-ai-israeli-army-gaza/ 

Ahronheim, A. (2025, September 17). How the IDF rewired the battlefield for the first AI war - interview. The Jerusalem Post - All News from the Middle East, Israel, and the Jewish World. Retrieved September 17, 2025, from https://www.jpost.com/ 

Christou, W. (2025, September 4). US imposes sanctions on Palestinians for requesting war crimes inquiry. The Guardian. Retrieved September 17, 2025, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/04/us-sanctions-palestinian-human-rights 

The Economist Leaders Article. (2025, August 7). Why Israel must hold itself to account. The Economist. Retrieved September 17, 2025, from https://www.economist.com/leaders/2025/08/07/why-israel-must-hold-itself-to-account 

Gritten, D., & Foulkes, I. (n.d.). BBC News - Breaking news, video and the latest top stories from the U.S. and around the world. BBC. Retrieved September 17, 2025, from https://www.bbc.com/news/ 

Truth: the First Casualty

An article in the Economist takes a first-hand look at Gaza’s controversial food-distribution sites where Gazans keep dying and Israel says they are working as intended.

Hunger and First Casualty

International aid organisations, including the UN, deny their supplies were controlled by Hamas and have refused to co-operate with the GHF, which they say violates basic humanitarian principles. Israel has also allowed local clans, some of which are also criminal groups, to receive their own food supplies. It claims these groups “challenge Hamas control”. (A First-Hand Look at Gaza's Controversial Food-Distribution Sites, 2025)

CNN's Catherine Nicholls, Gul Tuysuz, Jeremy Diamond, Sarah Dean and Antoinette Radford report that the UN secretary-general  António Guterres, calls starvation in Gaza a "horror show."

As the humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to spiral, the United Nations’ human rights office had a clear message: “Palestinians in Gaza are starving to death,” a statement read today.

In the past 24 hours, 15 people including four children, died of starvation across the territory according to the enclave’s health ministry.

Separately, at least 1,054 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military while trying to access food aid in Gaza, the UN human rights office added in its statement. (Nicholls et al., n.d.)

We ponder the cliche  “Truth is the first casualty of war” as we advocate for a permanent truce that will enable the peaceful resolution of a conflict that has imposed serious atrocities on civilian populations.

References

A first-hand look at Gaza's controversial food-distribution sites. (2025, July 17). The Economist. Retrieved July 23, 2025, from https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2025/07/17/a-first-hand-look-at-gazas-controversial-food-distribution-sites 

Nicholls, C., Tuysuz, G., & Diamond, J. (n.d.). UN secretary-general calls starvation in Gaza a "horror show. CNN. Retrieved July 23, 2025, from https://www.cnn.com/world/ 

Resolve and Rafah

Israel insists the offensive in Rafah is being conducted as a necessary part of the right of the nation to defend itself. Many Western countries, traditionally supportive of Israel, oppose a military operation in Rafah that would have catastrophic consequences on the civilian population.

Assessing Rafah Incursion

Nidal Al-Mughrabi and Emily Rose report for Reuters that the slow progress of Israel's offensive, more than seven months after it was prompted by Hamas' deadly cross-border raid, highlighted the difficulty of achieving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's aim of eradicating the militant group.

South Africa asked the top U.N. court to order a halt to Israel's Rafah offensive, saying it was "part of the endgame in which Gaza is utterly destroyed". Israel has denied South African allegations of genocide in Gaza and said it had complied with an earlier court order to step up aid.

The United States State Department said the humanitarian situation in Gaza continued to deteriorate and urged Israel to allow sustained access for aid via the southern and northern parts of the enclave.

Israel's military says its operation in Rafah is meant to kill Hamas fighters and dismantle infrastructure used by the group, which governs the blockaded Palestinian territory. Israel accuses Hamas of diverting aid, something it denies.

Israel said its strikes were targeted at militants.

"We're operating ... where we know Hamas terrorists are hiding, and where we think we can find either tunnel shafts or terror infrastructure or ammunition of many types," military spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said. (Al-Mughrabi & Rose, n.d.)

The Times of Israel reports that thirteen Western countries, including many traditionally supportive of Israel, appeal to it not to launch a large-scale offensive on Rafah.

“We reiterate our opposition to a full-scale military operation in Rafah that would have catastrophic consequences on the civilian population,” reads the appeal, sent by the countries’ foreign ministers to their Israeli counterpart Israel Katz and made public.

The signatories are Australia, Britain, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and EU member states Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden. (Times of Israel, n.d.)

The ministers welcome recent measures adopted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet to improve the flow of international aid into Gaza, but call for “further steps.”

“We urge the Government of Israel to let the humanitarian aid enter into the Gaza Strip through all relevant crossing points, including the one in Rafah,” they say. (Times of Israel, n.d.)

Emma Graham-Harrison, reporting for the Guardian, comments that South African lawyers urge the international court of justice (ICJ) to issue urgent measures over the assault on Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city.

South Africa has asked the international court of justice (ICJ) to urgently order Israel to end its assault on Rafah, halt its military campaign across Gaza, and allow international investigators and journalists into the territory.

They argued that seven months into the war, which has killed more than 35,000 people and reduced much of Gaza to rubble, the scale of suffering was now so intense that a total ceasefire was needed to get food, medicine and other aid to its desperate population.

Prof Vaughan Lowe KC told the court that a destructive campaign in Rafah, the last corner of Gaza that has not faced a ground invasion by Israeli forces, would destroy “the foundation of Palestinian life” in the territory.

“If the court does not act now the possibility of rebuilding a viable Palestinian society in Gaza will be destroyed, at least for the lifetime of those who survive the current horrors of Gaza.”

South Africa also demanded access for reporters and war crimes investigators to Gaza, to collect and preserve evidence of potential war crimes.

“The details are not always easy to verify because Israel continues to bar independent investigators and journalists from entering Gaza, and over 100 journalists who were in Gaza have been killed since Israeli attacks began,” Lowe said. “Israel cannot block investigations by independent investigators and then say the court cannot proceed because there is insufficient evidence against it.” (Graham-Harrison, n.d.)

Israel’s foreign ministry said in response that South Africa was “presenting biased and false claims” which “rely on unreliable Hamas sources” and called on the court to reject the appeal.

“Israel acts in accordance with international law and its humanitarian obligations, while implementing measures to minimise harm to civilians and civilian facilities,” the ministry said late on Thursday. (Graham-Harrison, n.d.)

Nick Logan of CBC News reports that women, children still account for more than half of identified victims after the UN agency revises figures.

The breakdown of the casualties, however, only includes 24,686 identified fatalities as of April 30. 

From that figure, OCHA has recorded 10,006 were Palestinian men, accounting for 40 per cent of the identified fatalities, while 4,959 (20 per cent) were women and 7,797 were children (32 per cent). It also listed 1,924 elderly people among the fatalities, but did not differentiate them by gender. (Logan, n.d.) 

Distribution of identified fatalities

Burak Elmali in an article posted to the Anadolu Agency (AA) web site notes that  Israel’s use of advanced software tools underscores a harrowing reality: AI, when misapplied, can facilitate atrocities of catastrophic proportions The TRT World Research Centre reports that the conduct of warfare is among the many domains influenced by AI, and the latter’s impact on this field is no longer theoretical. Gaza is a case in point. This evolution prompts profound questions about human agency and responsibility within AI debates. What if the person wielding the technological prowess harbours a militaristic ideology so extreme that it sanctions genocidal actions?

Over a period exceeding six months, Israel has conducted airstrikes with indiscriminate genocidal intent, as revealed through the candid admissions of numerous military intelligence insiders. Their confession-like statements about Israel’s use of advanced software tools, such as Lavender and Where’s Daddy, underscores a harrowing reality: AI, when misapplied, can facilitate atrocities of catastrophic proportions, and turn out to be as inhumane as possible.

The Israeli Defence Ministry’s communication often follows the path of censorship, obfuscation, and deflection tactics. This time was no different. The spokesperson dismissed the accusations with a mere denial. Yet, the stark reality reflected in the civilian death toll leaves little room to ignore the assertions made about the AI-driven genocidal undertaking attributed to Lavender. The algorithm used indicated the acceptance of 15-20 civilian casualties for one low-ranking Hamas member and up to 100 for one senior Hamas member. 

Such robotisation of inhumanity is very disturbing. Alas, the figures are aligned with the reported death tolls in Gaza. Furthermore, the use of unguided bombs, which cause enormous devastation in heavily populated areas in scenarios involving unconfirmed junior Hamas members, suggests that Israel is conducting more war crimes, this time pretexting the use of AI.

This scenario lays bare a critical issue addressed in a recent controversial piece published by +972 Magazine. 

In essence, the situation boils down to a straightforward logic: Lavender’s method of compiling death lists based on physical traits and affiliations was seemingly acted upon without critical examination. When we factor in the IDF’s apparent indifference to the margin of error in these operations, as evidenced by a list encompassing 37,000 Palestinians, the implications of a potentially deliberate killing strategy become deeply shocking, inhuman, and intentionally genocidal. (Elmalı & Kilavuz, 2024)

The apparent “gray area” between military operations that observe international humanitarian law concerning distinction between civilian and military targets and proportional response with weaponry that limits killing of non-combatants and destruction of civilian infrastructure and killing and destruction that has the genocidal intent of eliminating Palestinian people is an area where war crimes are being committed and need detailed investigation by independent military experts and reported to the International Court of Justice.

References

Al-Mughrabi, N., & Rose, E. (n.d.). Israel moves into north Gaza Hamas stronghold, pounds Rafah without advancing. Reuters. Retrieved May 17, 2024, from https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-moves-north-gaza-hamas-stronghold-pounds-rafah-without-advancing-2024-05-16/ 

Elmalı, B., & Kilavuz, İ. F. (2024, May 1). Israel Has Tainted AI with Genocide – TRT World Research Centre. TRT World Research Centre. Retrieved May 17, 2024, from https://researchcentre.trtworld.com/perspectives/israel-has-tainted-ai-with-genocide/ 

Graham-Harrison, E. (n.d.). South Africa calls on ICJ to order Israel to end Rafah offensive. the Guardian. Retrieved May 17, 2024, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/16/south-africa-icj-international-court-of-justice-israel-rafah-gaza 

Logan, N. (n.d.). Why the UN changed its death tolls of Palestinian women and children killed in Gaza. CBC News. Retrieved May 17, 2024, from https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/gaza-women-children-death-toll-1.7203167 

Times of Israel. (n.d.). 13 countries – including UK, Germany, Canada – urge Israel not to launch ‘full-scale’ Rafah op. Times of Israel. Retrieved May 17, 2024, from https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/13-countries-including-uk-germany-canada-urge-israel-not-to-launch-full-scale-rafah-op/