Under international law, there is no lawless battlefield, and the introduction of artificial intelligence does not change or dilute existing legal obligations. While there is currently no standalone, globally ratified treaty that explicitly bans militarized AI, its use by a belligerent—whether in active combat or during a military occupation—is strictly governed by International Humanitarian Law (IHL), International Human Rights Law (IHRL), and the laws governing belligerent occupation.
Any AI system used to select targets or execute attacks must comply with the foundational pillars of the laws of war:
- Belligerents must differentiate between combatants and civilians. If a militarized AI system relies on incomplete, biased, or flawed data—misidentifying civilians as targets based on algorithms—the attack violates international law.
- Attacks must not cause incidental civilian harm that is excessive in relation to the anticipated concrete military advantage. An algorithm cannot perform the complex, value-based moral judgments required to weigh human life against military necessity.
- Military forces must take all feasible precautions to avoid or minimize civilian harm. If an AI system operates as a "black box" where its behavior is unpredictable or unexplainable, deploying it violates the duty of precaution.
- When a belligerent is an occupying power, the legal threshold for using force shifts from active combat rules (IHL) to law enforcement standards under IHRL and the Fourth Geneva Convention.
- Using automated AI "kill chains" or automated targeting systems against civilians or individuals under effective control is generally unlawful, as it replaces human restraint and escalation-of-force protocols with automated execution.
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A chilling new documentary about Israel's AI-powered mass killing of civilians in Gaza received a 25-minute ovation at its premiere at the Venice Film Festival. The film was directed by two Oscar-winning Israeli filmmakers. The audience clapped continuously for Yuval Ibrahim and Rachel Szor after the screening on Thursday. The film "NAZA", features conversations with Israeli military intelligence and whistleblowers about how they targeted Palestinians in Gaza.
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The filmmakers behind “Naza” discuss their investigation into Gaza’s civilian death toll during a Venice Film Festival press conference. The documentary features anonymised testimony from 24 Israeli intelligence officers and soldiers, with their appearances and voices digitally altered for protection. Its creators address accountability, media silence, artificial intelligence and the challenges of documenting alleged state crimes.
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Israel is using AI systems "Lavender" and "Where's Daddy?" to kill Palestinians in Gaza, an investigative report by +972 Magazine has revealed. GLOSM/PARES obtained a copy of the investigation.
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Israel has denied using a secret AI-powered database to identify targets for its attacks in Gaza. A newly published investigation into the existence of an AI targeting technology called Lavender has cited unnamed Israeli intelligence sources who claimed it was used to fast-track the identification of low-level Hamas operatives, with an error rate that meant many civilians were killed.
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Israel is testing out AI remote-control guns on Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank. First pictured at a military checkpoint in the city of Hebron, the same technology has recently been installed by the Israeli occupation at a military base overlooking the Aida Refugee Camp in the city of Bethlehem. The gun is pointed towards a Main Street in the camp where children often play.