AI in Israel's War Against Hamas: Victories and Defeats
A few years back, Israel's military intelligence, Aman, heavily leaned on artificial intelligence, a decision that led to dire consequences. On October 7, 2023, Hamas effortlessly penetrated Israel’s defenses. Aron Khalifa, the head of Aman, shouldered the blame for this oversight and announced his forthcoming resignation post-conflict.
This development was preceded by a series of critical articles in Israeli media. These reports revealed that former Aman employees had strongly criticized the agency's leadership for disbanding the "Hatzav" unit in 2021.
"Hatzav," operational since 1949, was dedicated to collecting and analyzing information from open intelligence sources, including media publications, radio and TV broadcasts, books, and publicly available documents. In recent decades, the focus shifted to include monitoring social media and video hosting sites.
Among "Hatzav's" notable achievements were the analysis of Iran's nuclear program, data gathering on Hamas's activities, and close surveillance of prominent figures in Iraq and Gaza. The information collected by "Hatzav" served as a foundation for other Aman units and was utilized by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the diplomatic service, and other state departments.
Despite its longstanding history and recent successes, Aman's leadership deemed "Hatzav's" methods outdated and unnecessary. Additionally, in 2021, the IDF proclaimed the May Israeli-Palestinian conflict as the "first artificial intelligence war." Consequently, the unit was disbanded, and AI took over the role of gathering and analyzing open-source intelligence.
AI managed to cover a broader range of data than its human predecessors. However, two years later, it became clear that AI lacked the depth of understanding and the ability to perceive information from unique angles, often requiring a degree of intuition. This led to Aman missing crucial signs of Hamas's impending attack.
“They tried to save resources, become more efficient and create something new and modern, and closed a unit that questioned the concept. It was a mistake, and now they probably regret it,” former military intelligence operatives reflected.
In what seems to be a response to this criticism, in November 2023, Aman announced it was recruiting experienced reservists to resurrect its open-source intelligence analysis division.
Meanwhile, the IDF’s investment in AI for combat strategy seems to have borne fruit. Specifically, the Israeli Army reported employing the AI system Habsora ("The Gospel") to process vast data sets and identify attack targets. The system analyzes drone-captured videos, terrorist communications, and movement patterns of individuals and groups.
Since October 2023, Habsora has been identifying roughly 100 targets daily, with about half becoming the focus of Israeli Air Force attacks. The IDF has stated that the AI division “produces precise attacks on infrastructure associated with Hamas while inflicting great damage to the enemy and minimal harm to non-combatants”.
