Lavender: The Controversial Weaponization of Artificial Intelligence

A report by Yara Dergham, English adaptation by Nadine Sassine

Israel did not suffice with turning everything into a means of killing and destruction. Even Lavender, this beautiful plant with its appearance and fragrant smell, has turned into a destructive system with the Israeli army.
The Lavender system, developed by Unit 8200 in the Intelligence Division of the Israeli Elite Forces, works through artificial intelligence to collect all data, analyze it, and identify Hamas targets with an accuracy rate of up to 90%.

Data collection is done through direct surveillance devices, smartphones, drones, and other means. Tel Aviv has relied on this system, which has killed more than 37,000 people since October 7.

In a report sent to the White House discussing the danger of Lavender, it was revealed that the Israeli army has decided that for every Lavender signal indicating the possibility of Hamas fighters' presence, it is allowed to target and kill between 15 and 20 civilians. If the target is a senior Hamas official, the army has authorized killing more than 100 civilians in a single strike.

Faced with this scene of indiscriminate killing, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, expressed his concern about the use of artificial intelligence weapons in the Gaza war.

Despite all these reports and data on indiscriminate killing, the Israeli army denied them and affirmed that the use of the Lavender system is limited to collecting and analyzing information.

What cannot be denied is that artificial intelligence has changed the rules of warfare, and its use raises a range of legal and ethical questions, threatening countries far from the world of technology, such as Lebanon, which may face similar operations if directly involved in the ongoing war.