IDF uses facial recognition to track down October 7 attackers in Gaza

Nearly three years into the war that began on October 7, 2023, the IDF says it now controls parts of Gaza from dominant positions deep inside the Strip. In an on-the-ground report for Channel 12, military correspondent Shai Levy described how Israeli forces identify and kill militants who took part in the Hamas assault on the Gaza border communities that day.

At the Yellow Line positions near Khan Younis, Lt. Col. T., commander of Battalion 74, and Maj. A., a tank company commander, run what they describe as a surgical defense system built in part on facial-recognition technology. The method lets troops identify suspected militants even after they have moved away from the front line or reached home. Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters, the report says, now operate as guerrillas embedded among civilians, while hiding weapons in caches and tunnels.

According to T., the battalion can identify a person from a distance, document him, and know who he is, where he lives, and which organization he belongs to before he even crosses the Yellow Line. “We do not need to wait until he is 200 meters from me and then I’m in a dilemma. We have a strong system,” he said. He added that troops can track a suspect with a drone, receive confirmation that he is a militant who crossed on October 7, and then immediately carry out a strike. “We are at battalion level, at the tactical level, operating today with crazy capabilities,” he said. “We chase them all the way home, even if it is a kilometer beyond the Yellow Line.”

T. said Battalion 74 has killed nearly 10 militants who took part in the October 7 massacre, along with many other confirmed militants who approached the Yellow Line or were planning terror attacks. He also said the unit takes care not to harm women and children, and works to move them away even when it knows militants sent them there.