Early in the conflict, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the head of the Israeli military to hit thousands of targets without intelligence, including homes. According to Nahum Barnea’s reporting in Ynet, IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi told Netanyahu during a meeting on October 9, 2023 that the IDF already was bombing 1,500 targets per day.
Barnea’s sources explained that Netanyahu banged on the table and demanded, “Why not 5,000?” When the PM was told the IDF lacked the intelligence to conduct so many strikes, he replied, “I’m not interested in targets. Take down houses, bomb with everything you have.”
Previously, 972 Magazine reported that the IDF had employed an AI program dubbed Lavender to mark Palestinians as members of Hamas. This program increased the number of targets the IDF would generate, with a source explaining that it treated the outputs of the AI machine “as if it were a human decision.”
In total, 37,000 Palestinians were put on Lavender’s target list, with many of them killed in their homes, along with dozens of family members. Sources discussed with the outlet how they changed the inputs in Lavender so the AI would add additional names to the list.
“One day, totally of my own accord, I added something like 1,200 new targets to the [tracking] system, because the number of attacks [we were conducting] decreased,” the source said. “That made sense to me. In retrospect, it seems like a serious decision I made. And such decisions were not made at high levels.”
Since October 7, 2023, the Gaza Health Ministry has reported over 50,000 Palestinians killed by the Israeli onslaught, although some experts put the number of dead well over 100,000.
Last week, Tel Aviv broke a ceasefire and hostage deal it had struck with Hamas. The Israeli military resumed large-scale airstrikes and reinvaded Gaza. The Washington Post reports that Netanyahu is now preparing an even “more aggressive” military campaign in the Strip.
The outlet noted that the prime minister has been emboldened by the new military leadership in Tel Aviv, as well as President Donald Trump’s support in Washington.
As Tel Aviv continues to adopt a more brutal policy for Gaza, a new video of Israel’s ambassador to Austria, David Roet, exposed him calling for the execution of armed Palestinian minors. He said that “there should be a death sentence” for teenagers for “holding a gun” or a “grenade.”
Kyle Anzalone is the opinion editor of Antiwar.com and news editor of the Libertarian Institute. He hosts The Kyle Anzalone Show and is co-host of Conflicts of Interest with Connor Freeman.
