The body of a Palestinian killed in an early morning incident when residents rushed toward aid trucks in Gaza City is carried on a donkey-pulled cart on Feb. 29, 2024. (Credit: AFP)
BEIRUT — Israel's military intelligence unit is using facial recognition to conduct widespread surveillance and register Palestinian faces without their consent, according to a recent report from the New York Times.
The US newspaper said the program, which was initially intended for locating Israelis held hostage in Gaza, was expanded during Israel's ground offensive in Gaza to "identify individuals associated with militant groups, occasionally leading to misidentifications of civilians."
One such incident occurred at an Israeli military checkpoint in Gaza when Mosab Abu Toha, a Palestinian poet, was identified by the facial recognition program, pulled aside, and interrogated — despite having no affiliation with Hamas.
Israeli soldiers, who are equipped with facial recognition cameras upon deployment, have loose criteria for stopping individuals at checkpoints. This already low threshold, compounded by at times unreliable information from Palestinian community sources led to Abu Toha being misidentified as a Hamas operative. Abu Toha told NYT he endured interrogation and mistreatment before he was finally released.
Corsight is the Israeli company that provides the facial recognition technology. It reportedly supplements its program by using Google Photos' superior face-matching capabilities.
The use of facial recognition technology in a conflict zone has sparked global debate, and becomes even more contentious when deployed in warfare.
Amnesty International has expressed apprehension about "the potential dehumanization of Palestinians and technological errors." Israel has employed facial recognition in the West Bank and East Jerusalem before, but the extension of its use to Gaza represents a significant escalation.
NYT reports that "despite concerns raised by Israeli intelligence officers regarding the program's efficacy and ethical implications, the military has maintained secrecy regarding its Gaza operations."