Tel Aviv: The Israel Defence Forces’ (IDF) use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is now central to its military capabilities, ranging from target selection, threat interception, real-time surveillance, language analysis, and command automation, to integrating commercial AI solutions for unprecedented wartime efficiency and scale.
The IDF have rapidly integrated artificial intelligence (AI) into both offensive and defensive military operations, particularly seen during recent conflicts such as the 2023-2025 Gaza war. The implementation spans a range of tools for target identification, surveillance, data processing, and command and control, supported by both homegrown innovation and collaborations with reservists from global technology firms.
The army units use AI for target identification and bombing automation. There are some systems used for this mission, like –
- Habsora (“The Gospel”) is an AI system that analyses surveillance data to recommend bombing targets, including individuals, weapons, and structures, to human analysts for potential strikes. It greatly accelerates the targeting process, generating hundreds of potential targets daily—far more than manual processes could manage.
- Lavender is another AI based AI system. This database processes vast intelligence datasets to flag individuals as potential enemy combatants, linking tens of thousands to groups like Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Human analysts then approve these AI-generated target lists, often under accelerated timelines, raising concerns over the margin of error and civilian risk.
AI is also used for surveillance and hostage location. The IDF has employed audio analytics tools to locate individuals based on intercepted communications and facial recognition programs trained to match obscured, injured, or hidden faces with real identities. These are critical for hostage rescue efforts and pinpointing enemy fighters.
Sources said that the combat proven Iron Dome air defence system also incorporates AI to rapidly calculate and intercept incoming rockets, protecting Israeli cities. AI-driven command and control systems help the IDF process, manage, and act on the deluge of intelligence data in real-time, enabling faster decision-making for both defensive interceptions and offensive strikes.
In January 2025, the Defence Ministry established a formal AI and Autonomy Administration to coordinate research, development, and battlefield deployment of autonomous and semi-autonomous technologies.
-The writer is an Israel-based freelance journalist. The views expressed are of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of Raksha Anirveda
