Israel's 'Where's Daddy?' AI system helps target suspected Hamas militants when they're at home with their families, report says

As civilian casualties continue to mount in the wartorn Gaza Strip, reports of Israel's use of artificial intelligence (AI) in its targeting of Hamas militants are facing increasing scrutiny. A report by the Israeli outlets +972 Magazine and Local Call earlier this month said that Israeli forces had relied heavily on two AI tools so far in the conflict — "Lavender" and "Where's Daddy."

While "Lavender" identifies suspected Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) militants and their homes, "Where's Daddy" tracks these targets and informs Israeli forces when they return home, per the report, which cites six Israeli intelligence officers who had used AI systems for operations in Gaza, including "Where's Daddy?"

"We were not interested in killing [Hamas] operatives only when they were in a military building or engaged in a military activity," one of the officers told +972 and Local Call. "On the contrary, the IDF bombed them in homes without hesitation, as a first option. It's much easier to bomb a family's home. The system is built to look for them in these situations," they added.

voracitude,

deleted_by_author

    •
    NoneOfUrBusiness,

    reject ceasefire deals

    What? Hamas was rejecting temporary ceasefire deals that would force them to turn over all the hostages (and therefore have no leverage when the "war" actually ends). They're not buying Biden's bullshit about signing a temporary ceasefire and then "turning it into something more durable" while Israel was saying they'll attack Rafah anyway.

    misspacific,
    @misspacific@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

    but when the IDF does it it’s a feature?

    it’s a genocide; that’s the point.

    Nobody comes out of this clean.

    it’s a genocide; it’s not rational.

    SomeTeaMonster,

    imgur.com/a/4h7pJHA

    jordanlund,
    @jordanlund@lemmy.world avatar

    Removed for genocide denial.

    Article 2 of the UN’s Genocide Convention defines it like this:

    www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide.shtml

    “Article II

    In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

    a) Killing members of the group;

    b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

    c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

    d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

    e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”

    Note: “Any of the following acts”. Israel is now 5 for 5.

    SomeTeaMonster,

    They’re going after Hamas and there’s been collateral damage, such happens in every war. If they wanted to commit genocide, why wouldn’t they just carpet bomb the place instead of sending in leaflets to warn people to leave and even risk the lives of their own troops? By your definition, Hamas is also committing genocide against the Israelis.

    Mirshe,

    Sorry, “collateral damage” wasn’t a good enough excuse for the US military and it’s definitely not a good enough excuse for the Israeli military either. The US struck a hospital in Kunduz fully aware of what it was and it caused enough of an incident that several coalition nations pulled out of Afghanistan rather than be involved. The US very nearly lost a LOT of its allies over that, and that was AFTER extensive investigation and compensation. Why should we hold Israel, a first-world military by any metric, to a lower standard than how we hold our own army?

    If you see a hospital is being used as a military staging area, you don’t just level the goddamn place. You don’t say “well they COULD HAVE been there” (by the way, that’s the exact same justification for the Kunduz airstrike). You don’t look at it and say “well collateral damage and all”. You rework your plan. You find a way to minimize casualties, whether that’s a strike team or simply bypassing that target entirely because it’s way too risky to civilians. It’s a HOSPITAL, you can’t say “you need to evac because we’re bombing this place” - there are people who are too sick to move, equipment that CAN’T, and it’d be a huge operation to move everyone in a hospital on 24 hours’ notice.

    As to “why aren’t they just carpet bombing the place”, it’s because half of the reason for this genocide is lebensraum - you’ll notice that there’s been a decent number of Israeli real estate firms that have caught flak for selling land in newly-emptied Gaza areas.

    anon987,

    So by that definition palestine committed genocide against Israelis on Oct 7th?

    aStonedSanta,

    I guess in a way, yes. But there is more context about the oppressed and the oppressors needed imo.

    anon987,

    Well when do you start? When the Romans oppressed the Jewish people and conquered Jerusalem in 70A.D?

    To add insult to injury, they gave Judea the name of Israel’s ancient enemy, the Philistines. The Arabic form of the name is Palestine.

    Both sides have been the oppressors at one point or another, fighting over their perceived holy land.

    misspacific,
    @misspacific@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

    what’s the logical conclusion of your point here?

    AmosBurton,

    deleted_by_author

    •
    misspacific,
    @misspacific@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

    cool, i’m going to go to your house and squat in your backyard with a questionable document that says i have the right to be there. then, i’ll start expanding into the structure of your home by destroying key areas. then, i’ll start taping out walkways through your home you will not be allowed to use. if any member of your family attempts to stop this i will use my extensive military might to kill them.

    this process will continue many decades. feel free to go with the flow.

    AmosBurton,

    deleted_by_author

    •
    misspacific,
    @misspacific@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

    you can keep self sucking all you want; it’s a genocide. eat me.

    AmosBurton,

    deleted_by_author

    •
    misspacific,
    @misspacific@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

    glug glug

    NoneOfUrBusiness,

    committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such

    You need that intent.

    PugJesus,
    PugJesus avatar

    Israel must be stopped because it is the one currently committing genocide, and the only one with the realistic capacity to do so at the moment. Not because Israel is the only one which desires to do so.

    "We are looking forward to two important things, which are within sight: The first is the cleansing of Palestine of the filth of the Jews, and their uprooting from it, Allah willing. This is within sight. Four years, my brothers… By 2022, we will be rid of them… The second thing is the establishment of the Caliphate, after the nation has been healed of its cancer – the Jews – Allah willing…

    “It is unacceptable that the Jews control some of the Arab states – their regimes, their armies, and their security agencies – while the peoples remain oppressed. Oh peoples of the Arab and Islamic nation, oh Palestinian people, you possess a concealed power that you can detonate in the faces of the Jews and the hypocrites. We expect another Arab Spring from you, with new characteristics – a second Arab Spring, which will focus on the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Allah willing. We are your embers and your fuel, Allah willing.”

    Fathi Hamad, high ranking member of Hamas’s political bureau, 2018

    “There was a series of 120 deportations of Jews from Europe. This was because they betrayed the people among whom they lived, and worked against the interests of the societies that sheltered them. They betrayed those societies, in which they lived as spies. For example, they spied against the Persians for the Byzantines. These [Jewish] groups corrupted the societies in which they lived through usury, the worship of money, extreme miserliness, and bribery. Those nations considered them to be anti-Christian. The [Jews] lived in Europe according to the principle of rejection of non-Jews, whom they call Gentiles. They embraced the notion of the Jews being the victims throughout history, in order to take over Palestine.”

    Mahmoud Al-Zahhar, one of the founders of Hamas, 2017

    “[R]emoving the Jews from the land they occupied in 1948 is an immutable principle because it appears in the Book of Allah.”

    Mahmoud Al-Zahhar, one of the founders of Hamas, 2018

    “If we look back at history, we see that [the Jews] were abhorred in the time of Nebuchadnezzar. This is also true of the times of the Assyrians, the Romans, and the Prophet Muhammad. They betrayed him. They were treacherous against him, and he expelled them from the Arabian Peninsula. Even Hitler hated them, loathed them, and got rid of them. However, everything people say about massacres and Holocaust – these are all lies. Hitler may have hated them, but it was because of their deeds and crimes. Hitler was no less of a criminal than them.”

    Marwan Abu Ras, Hamas MP, 2019

    “Those [cowards] who quake with fear, those who cooperate and collaborate [with Israel], those who normalize relations with the occupation will be gathered with the apes and pigs in the Hellfire. Do you know who the apes and pigs are? They are the Jews who Allah transformed into apes and pigs.”

    Ismail Radwan, Hamas Minister of Religious Endowments, 2018

    “Over is the time Hamas spent discussing recognizing Israel. Now Hamas will discuss when we will wipe out Israel,”

    Yahya Sinwar, leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip

    When Sinwar would tell him [Ehud Yaari, a fellow of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, who interviewed Sinwar in prison four times] Israel must be destroyed and insist there was no place for Jewish people in Palestine, “he would joke, ‘Maybe we’ll make an exception of you’”.

    “We cannot, in exchange for money or projects, give up Palestine and our weapons. We will not give up the resistance… We will not recognize Israel, Palestine must stretch from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea.”

    Ismail Haniyeh, current leader/chairman of Hamas, in 2020

    “[Allah] transformed them into filthy, ugly animals like apes and pigs because of the injustice and evil they had brought about.” Al-Regeb also prayed for the ability to “get to the necks of the Jews.”

    Hamad Al-Regeb, an official Sheikh (elder official) of Hamas, 2023

    “Therefore, we are convinced that if a total conflict begins, the airspace and seaports of this entity will be shut down, and they will not be able to live without electricity, water, and communications.”

    Saleh Al-Arouri, now-deceased Deputy Chairman of Hamas, 2023

    NoneOfUrBusiness,

    Okay they're saying a lot of weird shit but I think this is a clear case of rhetoric not matching action. Hamas has been a very pragmatic organization since 2006, and has had a two-state solution as its goal officially since 2017 and realistically since at least 2008. Even their actions on October 7th, while containing many war crimes, don't seem like they had genocidal intent to me. Otherwise we'd probably see more than 66% civilian casualties (not all of which was done by Hamas, we should remember that). Speaking of which, was there any reporting done on the proportion of atrocities committed by Hamas, other militias and just random Gazans who happened to be there? Not saying Hamas didn't commit atrocities, they did 100%, but this data is still important.

    Silverseren,

    Couldn't you use that same claim to say that multiple known genocides weren't because the populations are higher now? Heck, I see morons use the same argument to claim China isn't committing genocide because the Uighur population is higher now.

    The fallacious "but the population is higher" argument is an idiotic attempt to whitewash genocide.

    alcoholicorn, (edited )

    I mean China isn’t committing genocide, anyone can go to Xinjiang, and delegations of most Muslim countries have verified as much. We know what genocide looks like, it doesn’t look like anti-poverty programs and education + doctors per capita approaching the national average, and a life expectancy of 75.

    But one of the more telling parts about the genocide in Gaza is that while population was increasing, average age decreases; people have more kids because they’ve got a <50% chance to make it to 18.

    Population was increasing in Xinjiang faster than the national average because recognized minorities were exempt from the 1 child policy, before it was removed.

    BarbecueCowboy,

    It can be hard to find evidence beyond pictures that look pretty damning on those 'education camps' and first hand accounts of people who claim to have experienced things that we would usually refer to as part of a genocidal campaign. China is trying real hard to get to that point, It's maybe the nicest way to wipe out an ethnic group, but primary focus past few years seems to be on forced implanted contraception and sterilization.

    It definitely seems to be working out.
    https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22311356/china-uyghur-birthrate-sterilization-genocide

    alcoholicorn, (edited )

    Did you see the article’s source? It’s Adrian Zenz.

    BarbecueCowboy,

    Weird dude, but I do find it interesting that we always seem to find some problem with any person anywhere who speaks critically of China.

    You can check the camps on satellite though:
    https://xjdp.aspi.org.au/map/?

    alcoholicorn,

    The point is that dude has no means to collect such statistics, he’s not a research agency asking representative samples about their medical history, documenting his methodology and making the data available, and he’s not even citing statistics supplied by hospitals.

    He literally just pulled those charts out of his ass. Instead of “well yes, they’re lying, but I’m sure the broader point is true”, consider “would they have any need to fabricate things if the broader point is true?”

    Surely it would be easy enough to go to Xinjiang and verify it, since there’s no travel restrictions and they wouldn’t have to worry about getting caught making shit up.

    BarbecueCowboy,

    You can find videos of the outside of the camps on youtube, but checkpoints are numerous and photography is prohibited in many areas according to a lot of the videos out there. The people who post them do also seem to suddenly develop new issues with their credibility after they post them, but really if you aren't going to trust the first hand accounts from the people being oppressed, then I don't think it's worth you looking into it.

    You can still just look at the camps if you want though, these images aren't exactly unique:
    https://xjdp.aspi.org.au/map/?

    AMDIsOurLord,

    Adrain Zenz, the man behind the Uyghur bullshit, is a Christian Fascist whom according to himself was ordained from the fucking god to spread this bullshit

    Also, the last time this “evidence” was making rounds, it was debunked. Not only they had pictures of fucking actors who weren’t Uyghur, their evidence contained AI generated images.

    Give me ONE, fucking ONE, piece of hard evidence that can prove what Adrian Zenz and RFA say. Mainstream Media is literally parroting the words of actually insane people just because China Le Bad.

    Also, on purely philosophical grounds, the country that’s funding a Muslim genocide and conducts systematic racism against them, also known as the United States of America, and their lapdog Israel, are the last two countries on this earth that can say anything remotely advocating relating to Muslims rights.

    BarbecueCowboy,

    You can go look at the camps if you want, it's all available via satellite pictures:
    https://xjdp.aspi.org.au/map/?marker=3405

    Beyond that the best we got is probably all the Uyghurs talking about it.

    AMDIsOurLord,

    Didn’t someone go there and find out these are literally prison complexes? By that count, USA is commiting genocide against millions of people lol

    BarbecueCowboy,

    Yeah, there's a lot of videos out there and they are definitely built like a prison. Very few of the inside, not sure if that's good or bad.

    As far as the US, considering the scale and purpose, not sure the two are that comparable, but also not really a contest, an injustice anywhere is an injustice everywhere. I don't disagree that both are a problem though, but definitely been a bit longer since anyone had a reason to accuse the US of mass sterilization. Did happen in US prisons too though, and a lot more recently than you might think, thankfully smaller scale.

    DancingBear,

    No, IDF and Israeli government are trash terrorists that have occupied apartheid Gaza and West Bank for more than half a century.

    Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister funded Hamas.

    If you support Netanyahu IDF or Israeli government at this point you are a maniac.

    The world knows this.

    SomeTeaMonster,

    So it’s THEIR fault that Hamas came in and murdered, tortured, mutilated, and raped innocents families on October 7th? Seriously? You realize how insane that sounds?

    DancingBear,

    I realize how delusional you are to think I said that, or even suggested it.

    SomeTeaMonster,

    Resorting to insults never makes your position a good one, friend. Give me some evidence please that the Israeli government would finance a terrorist group bent on killing Jews. They literally have this in their founding documents.

    Keeponstalin, (edited )

    Here’s some evidence that Israel has supported and funded Hamas as a Divide and Conquer tactic for decades.

    This really turned and came to a head in 2007, when Hamas, after winning democratic elections in 2006, rose to power, and the Israeli authorities, along with the U.S., attempted to initiate a regime change operation, which facilitated a civil war between Hamas and Fatah and allowed Hamas to take over the Gaza Strip. Since then, Israeli authorities have actively embraced the idea that Hamas would be accepted as a governing authority in the Gaza Strip. Now, part of the calculus in that is because of Gaza’s 2 million Palestinians. This is a demographic issue. Israel wanted to sever the Gaza Strip from the rest of historic Palestine in order to reinforce its claim that it’s a Jewish-majority state. By getting rid of 2 million Palestinians, two-thirds of whom are refugees demanding return, Israel can claim to be both a Jewish state and a democracy and restructure what is its apartheid regime.

    “Divide and Rule”: How Israel Helped Start Hamas to Weaken Palestinian Hopes for Statehood

    As far back as December 2012, Mr. Netanyahu told the prominent Israeli journalist Dan Margalit that it was important to keep Hamas strong, as a counterweight to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. Mr. Margalit, in an interview, said that Mr. Netanyahu told him that having two strong rivals, including Hamas, would lessen pressure on him to negotiate toward a Palestinian state.

    History of Hamas supported by Netanyahu since 2012

    Hamas began twenty years into the occupation during the first Intifada, with the goal of ending the occupation. Collective punishment has been a deliberate Israeli tactic for decades with the Dahiya doctrine. Violence such as suicide bombings and rockets escalated in response to Israeli enforcement of the occupation and apartheid.

    Hamas 1988 Charter and Revised 2017 Charter

    The 1988 Charter, which is certainly unreasonable in its fundamentalism with Sharia Law and is antisemitic, does not call for the extermination of all Jewish People. The 2017 Revised charter accepts a Two-State Solution of the 1967 Borders. Check Article 7 and 13 of the 1988 Charter to see yourself, compare it to Article 20 and 24-26 in the revised charter

    The slogan From the River to the Sea is about Palestinian liberation that started in the 60s by the PLO for a democratic secular state, not Genocide. The Syrian leader Hafez al-Assad in 1966 maybe, but he’s not Palestinian.

    SuddenDownpour,

    “AI” in this context only serves to obfuscate responsibility. “You’ve just striked a bunch of children”, “Well, sure, but this AI-generated model predicted that there was a 80% chance that they were all little Hamaslings”. Of course, the data that AI was trained with was bollocks to ensure everyone is Hamas, including NGO kitchen foreign workers.

    anas,

    They can’t fight Hamas on the field, they have to assassinate them in other countries (funny how the best intelligence in the world knows exactly who the “Qatar billionaires” are but hasn’t done anything about it), murder them alongside their families while they sleep, or disguise as civilians to murder them in hospitals. Or the usual, take their frustration out on civilians.

    radicalautonomy,

    at home

    confusedtravolta.gif

    PugJesus,
    PugJesus avatar

    Every sane country on earth: "We use modern tools to reduce civilian casualties (because civilian casualties are bad PR)."

    Old-school countries: "We use modern tools without regard for civilian casualties (because what are they going to do about it? fight back? lmao)"

    Israel and Russia: "We use modern tools to INCREASE civilian casualties!"

    bamboo,

    The civilian casualty count in Gaza is already higher than Ukraine. As bad as Russia is, they’re nothing in comparison to Israel.

    alternative_factor,
    alternative_factor avatar

    Really appreciating Israels SkyNet 100% speedrun here, some really impressive moves. However, I'm starting to wonder if this run passes the suspect test, I feel like you can't get past regulators so well in most cases without an exploit.

    nonailsleft,

    Spoiler: step one was to remove the regulators

    NoneOfUrBusiness,

    Zionists will look at this and say Hamas is taking human shields.

    Kolanaki,
    @Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

    So you don’t blow up their entire family, right? 😟

    SuckMyWang,

    ……Oh shit I’m late for my colonics treatment

    Jamil,

    Nope! And ‘susected Hamas militants’ are any male that changed addresses or changed phones ‘too often’.

    RizzRustbolt,

    Could have stopped at “male”.

    xmunk,

    Who the fuck names a program like that “Where’s Daddy?” that’s fucking sociopathic.

    Passerby6497,

    The type of person who is intentionally targeting children to murder. I know, what a first for Israel…

    nonailsleft,

    In this Information Age, more and more power is given to nerds. These people are known for many traits but for empathy or ethics, they are not.

    BestBouclettes,

    I’m very much a nerd but not very empathetic. But that’s the autism.

    xmunk,

    As a nerd, I find that offensive. I’m quite empathetic!

    Zacryon, (edited )

    And another day of “let’s shove all people of group X into one drawer and judge them”.
    We have all this information available through the internet. Can research even the most difficult topics by some mere hits on a keyboard and a click. And yet, there are still so many idiots. This is really mind-boggling.

    snooggums,
    @snooggums@midwest.social avatar

    If they designed the peogrm to be used to target people in their reaidentiak homes with their families, sociopaths is probably a good guess.

    Silverseren,

    Really makes me wonder what the meaning behind Lavender is in this context. There could quite easily be some horrific intention behind using that specific word in correlation to this murder system.

    Rottcodd,
    Rottcodd avatar

    Yes - it is sociopathic.

    That's not a coincidence.

    AMDIsOurLord,

    Israel

    For them? This is tame.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • world@lemmy.world
  • DreamBathrooms
  • mdbf
  • ngwrru68w68
  • magazineikmin
  • thenastyranch
  • rosin
  • khanakhh
  • osvaldo12
  • Youngstown
  • slotface
  • Durango
  • kavyap
  • InstantRegret
  • tacticalgear
  • anitta
  • ethstaker
  • provamag3
  • cisconetworking
  • tester
  • GTA5RPClips
  • cubers
  • everett
  • modclub
  • megavids
  • normalnudes
  • Leos
  • JUstTest
  • lostlight
  • All magazines
    •