Israel has discreetly initiated a widespread facial recognition program in the Gaza Strip, compiling a database of Palestinians without their awareness or authorization.
A video surveillance camera – illustrative photo. Image credit: Pawel Czerwinski via Unsplash, free license
As revealed by The New York Times, this initiative, developed after the October 7th incidents, utilizes technology from Google Photos along with a specialized tool from the Tel Aviv-based firm Corsight to detect individuals associated with Hamas.
The facial recognition program was established jointly with Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. Following the October 7th events, operatives from Israel’s Unit 8200, the primary intelligence unit of the Israeli Defense Forces, identified potential targets by scrutinizing security camera footage and content uploaded to social media by opposition groups. Additionally, soldiers solicited information from Palestinian detainees to identify individuals affiliated with the adversary.
Company Corsight, renowned for its technology’s capability to accurately recognize individuals with less than half of their face visible, utilized these images to develop a facial recognition tool for Israeli personnel operating in Gaza.
In order to expand the database and pinpoint potential targets, the Israeli military installed facial recognition cameras at checkpoints along major routes used by Palestinians to travel southward.
Soldiers recounted to the Times that Corsight’s technology sometimes yielded inaccurate results, especially when dealing with low-quality footage or obscured facial features. In certain instances, Corsight’s tool erroneously identified individuals as being linked to adversary groups.
In October, several hospitals in Israel began employing Corsight’s technology for patient identification, as reported by Forbes. Since then, Corsight’s technology demonstrated the capability to identify individuals “whose features had been impacted by physical trauma, and find a match amongst photos submitted by concerned family members.”
Corsight primarily targets governmental, law enforcement, and military applications. In 2020, the company, just one year old at the time, claimed its technology could identify faces even when masked. Two years later, Corsight purportedly embarked on developing a tool capable of constructing a person’s facial model based on their DNA. Last year, Corsight collaborated with the metropolitan police in Bogotá, Colombia, to locate suspects involved in murder and theft cases within the public transit system.
Written by Vytautas Valinskas