Yedioth Ahronoth reported that several new weapons are being tested in the ground invasion of the Gaza Strip (Reuters)

On October 22, the Israeli occupation army released video footage of the Magellan unit using a new high-resolution mortar shell, dubbed the "Iron Sting", in its shelling of civilians inside the Gaza Strip. These shells were announced by the Israeli company Elbit Systems since March 2021, but they were used for the first time in the current war on the Gaza Strip, according to the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth (1).

Infantry divisions usually use mortars in combat zones, and the Qassam Brigades themselves use them against occupation soldiers, but the accuracy of ordinary mortars remains fairly low, requiring the use of large numbers of them, and here comes the value of these advanced shells, which the company states are designed to engage "fixed targets with a high degree of accuracy, using laser guidance or GPS."

This advanced missile is only one of the new weapons used by Israel in its grinding war on Gaza now, but it is not the only new weapon it is testing in the current war.

AI aircraft

(Al Jazeera)

A report in Politico (2) indicated that hours after the "Al-Aqsa Flood" attack, the Israeli occupation army rushed to write to Skydio, an American technology company working in the production of drones, and asked it to supply short-range reconnaissance aircraft that rely on artificial intelligence in their movement without the need for human guidance, and are used to conduct three-dimensional surveys of complex engineering structures such as buildings of various types.

Within the three weeks after the "Al-Aqsa Flood," the American company sent more than 100 new marches of this kind to the occupation army, with the promise of sending more in the future, according to Mark Valentine, the executive director in charge of government contracts at the company. However, Skydeo was not the only American company to receive requests from the occupation army to send this type of aircraft, according to the American newspaper, the Gaza war created a demand for these advanced military technologies, which rely on artificial intelligence, and are provided by relatively small technical companies.

All this comes at a time when the occupation army is already using self-driving aircraft from the American company "ShieldAI", which are the "Nova2" aircraft, but this type of drones is used only inside buildings, as it relies on planning paths and computer vision algorithms to move automatically inside buildings without the need for GPS or human guidance (2).

Other reports indicated that Israel had asked the United States to purchase 200 Switchblade 600 suicide drones, aircraft with an advanced camera and capable of carrying a quantity of explosive materials, and having the ability to receive information from nearby drones (600). The Switch Bild 4 is primarily used to attack nearby targets, with a range of 600 kilometers and a 40-minute flight capability, the same aircraft that the U.S. military provided to Ukraine last year in its war against Russia.

Bombardment with algorithms

The IDF's use of artificial intelligence is not limited to these modern drones, but is also used to identify targets on the ground when bombing. After the war on Gaza in May 2021, officials stated that Israel had fought its "first war in the field of artificial intelligence," but the current war provided an opportunity for the occupation army to use these technologies in a much broader theater of operations than last time, especially with regard to the AI target identification platform known as The Gospel.

The Israeli army uses Josbel to estimate the number of civilian casualties in the bombardment, suggest the most relevant targets of the attack within a given perimeter, and calculate the amount of ammunition needed. These algorithms are one of the most destructive and lethal methods of bombing in the twenty-first century, according to a report by the French newspaper "Liberation" (5).

According to Israeli army figures, it bombed 15,35 sites during the first 100 days of the war on the Strip, and admitted that the "Josbel" algorithm automatically allowed it to identify targets at a rapid pace. It also reported that the occupation army said that the "Josbel" algorithm scores 50 targets per day for bombing, while the army used to place <> targets annually in Gaza to bomb them, and former army officers described the algorithm as a "factory of mass assassinations."

The Josbel system relies on information and images from drones and information coming from intercepting communications, and also uses control tower data to monitor the movements of targeted individuals, then gives instructions to targets to attack, with a statement about the number of people likely to be killed in the bombing.

In mid-June, an Israeli official explained to Bloomberg that two models are being used to build a dataset based on algorithms on specific targets, with the aim of calculating the amount of potential munition, prioritizing and assigning thousands of targets to aircraft, and proposing a timetable for raids (6). According to the same official, these systems are subject to a human operator who examines and approves targets and plans for air strikes, and it is interesting that the program does not take the decision itself, but leaves it to the unit commander, who presses the destruction button after the list of targets reaches him.

New weapons of destruction

The extensive destruction in the Gaza Strip has been caused by the continuous and violent bombardment of the Gaza Strip for nearly two months. (French)

Yedioth Ahronoth also reported that several new weapons, specifically for infantry, are being tested in the ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, and as part of the US administration's continued support for Israel, the Pentagon sent two new shoulder-fired missiles to the occupation, the Leo and MGM-1 Matador. These new rockets will be included in the current arsenal of the infantry battalions participating in the ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, and are 1% larger than the rockets currently available to the Israeli army, and have a wider scope of destruction (50).

The newspaper also pointed out that the infantry forces began using the latest version of the IWI Negev 7 machine gun in the war on the Gaza Strip, a weapon produced by the Israeli Arms Industries Company (IWI), and uses a bullet with a diameter of 7.7 mm, which gives it greater power to penetrate walls.

The newspaper also reported that the occupation army used new night vision technologies for the first time in the war through the use of the new night vision device (IDO), a device that provides a three-dimensional image and is easy to use for long periods of time. The device can be easily attached to the front of the helmet and helps night vision with one or both eyes.

Eitan is an 8-wheeled vehicle much lighter than a Nimr and is significantly cheaper in cost. (Israeli press)

In 2019, the occupation army began using a smart scope on weapons called "Dagger", and during the current war the third generation of this scope began to be used for the first time, and it is assumed that it has an advanced system that uses photoelectric sensors and processes images with artificial intelligence to track targets accurately. The IDF also used for the first time the Eitan troop carrier to operate with Israeli armored vehicles such as the Nimr, and Eitan is an armored fighting vehicle based on the technologies used in the Merkava series of tanks and the Nimr armored infantry fighting vehicles, a newly developed version (8).

The Eitan has 8 wheels, is much lighter than the Nimr armored vehicle, and is significantly cheaper than it, and may have been used because of the high cost of using the Nimr and the success of resistance forces in destroying it at unprecedented high rates during the ground invasion, which pressured the cost of the war in Gaza for Israel.

Israel is trying to get everything out of its power in this confrontation and is using the latest in its arsenal and that of its allies of modern and advanced weapons, but despite all these weapons, and in a war of extermination against children, women, the elderly and men of Gaza, the occupation army has not yet been able to achieve any real goals behind that war. Most importantly, the Palestinian resistance stands in the face of all these technologies with unparalleled courage and courage, to assure everyone that development and weapons do not win wars alone, the most important thing is the man who uses these weapons.

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Sources:

1) IDF makes first operational use of Iron Sting precision mortar munition

2) Israel's appetite for high-tech weapons highlights a Biden policy gap

3) Nova 2

4) Israel asks for 200 suicide bombers from the US

5) How does the IDF use AI to bomb Gaza?

6) Israel bombed 15,35 "targets" in <> days. Artificial intelligence under the guillotine of tweeters

7) New weaponry used by troops in Gaza

8) After the tank holocaust. What will Israel do in the second phase?

Source : Al Jazeera