On October 7th 2023, when Hamas invaded Israel, a war began and was followed by a wave of terror on civilians of both nationalities.
The idea that this conflict only began on October 7th is supported by many, but, on the other hand, Palestinians have been suffering since 1948, when Israel claimed the territory of Palestine for themselves.
Happenings in the Gaza Strip are former and complex, therefore, let us understand what has been happening in Palestine and its latest events.
Israel strikes and kills seven aid workers in Palestine
On April 1, 2024, seven aid workers of the World Central Kitchen (WCK) were killed by Israeli bombing in Gaza.
The humanitarians Lalzawmi “Zomi” Frankcom, Damian Sobol, Saifeddin Issam Ayad Abutaha, Jacob Flickinger, John Chapman, James (Jim) Henderson, and James Kirby were respectively from Australia, Poland, Palestine, Canada, and England.
It was notified that the attack happened while the aid workers were leaving the World Central Kitchen Warehouse in Deir al-Balah. They had just delivered 100 tonnes of food supplies and left there traveling in three cars.
In addition, it is important to clarify that the WCK organization and the workers’ travel had been coordinated in advance with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
After these events, the World Central Kitchen halted its activities in Gaza and condemned Israel’s actions, having stated that food is used as a weapon in war scenarios.
On April 4, there was a briefing at the White House with the National Security Council spokesman John Kirby. While being asked if the president is threatening to cut aid directed to Israel if they do not change their posture toward aid workers and organizations, he said, “Our policies with respect to Gaza will be dependent upon our assessment of how well the Israelis make changes [about the current situation in Gaza].”
Al-Shifa, the largest hospital in Palestine, was decimated after Israel’s military operation
For two weeks, Israel promoted a military operation inside the Al-Shifa hospital, the largest one in the Gaza Strip, that killed hundreds of Palestinians and destroyed the hospital and its units.
Al-Shifa Medical Complex was established in 1946, it was a shelter from the war for many Palestinians and relied on 5 units: Intensive Care, Emergency Unit, outpatient/blood bank, Internal Medicine, and Maternity unit.
Israel claims that Hamas was using Al-Shifa as a hiding place. It was announced that, during this operation, they killed more than 200 terrorists and arrested over 900 suspects. However, Palestinian authorities oppose this information and affirm that the IDF killed over 400 people, among those were doctors, patients, women, and children.
The exact number of victims is still uncertain.
Israel is using Artificial Intelligence to identify targets in Palestine
It was disclosed for the first time by Yuval Abraham, an Israeli journalist, through the “+972 Magazine”, that Israel’s military forces are allegedly using Artificial Intelligence to bomb its targets in Palestine, and they have been doing it since the beginning of the war.
The technologies are reportedly called “Lavender” and “Where is Daddy?”, they have the ability to find pre-programmed targets and are managed with very minimum human supervision.
The “Lavender” system was designed to target the low-ranking operatives in the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), as Yuval stated in an interview for the “Democracy Now” Journal. This mechanism was mostly used at the first stages of the war, in which the Israeli military almost completely relied on it.
In addition, it was said that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had knowledge that 10% of the targets killed using Lavender were not Hamas-related, but they continued operating it nevertheless.
On the contrary, “Where is Daddy” is an AI reportedly used to track targets when specifically at home, during night time, and probably united with their families.
That is where the cruel name given to the program comes from.
This technology is probably why there are so many reports during the war of entire Palestinian family units being killed while having absolutely no relation to Hamas.
The article above was edited by Camila Lutfi.
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