Rizky Amelia
Israeli authorities have increasingly integrated artificial intelligence systems into their administrative and security infrastructure to monitor land in the occupied West Bank, using automated detection tools to speed up the demolition of Palestinian homes and properties. Researchers and human rights monitors report that these advanced digital platforms are being leveraged to track structural modifications across vast geographic areas, facilitating rapid evictions and deepening territorial control.
The deployment of automated technology in the West Bank follows the extensive use of AI systems by the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip. In that theater, algorithmic databases were utilized to generate potential bombing targets, a practice that contributed significantly to the scale of Palestinian casualties and was highlighted in the award-winning documentary film NAZA. Rights advocates argue that the expansion of similar technologies into land governance represents an automated extension of displacement policies.
Central to this technological framework is ImiSight, an artificial intelligence platform developed by the Israeli weapons manufacturer Rafael. The software is engineered to analyze high-altitude imagery and pinpoint subtle physical alterations on the ground. When these automated systems identify unauthorized adjustments to the landscape, the findings are subsequently used by authorities as legal justification to dispatch demolition crews and heavy machinery.
Before its application in the occupied West Bank, the ImiSight system was tested and implemented within Israel’s southern Naqab desert against Palestinian Bedouin citizens. In that region, many Bedouins reside in unrecognized villages that are systematically excluded from official planning schemes, making building permits virtually impossible to obtain. Rights defenders have long maintained that these policies are designed to clear indigenous communities to make way for Jewish settlements.
According to media reports, the software enabled the Israel Land Authority to monitor an area spanning more than 10,700 square kilometers across the Naqab. This algorithmic monitoring contributed directly to the forced removal and eviction of over 2,600 Bedouin citizens. After proving its operational efficiency in the Naqab, the surveillance framework was transferred into the occupied West Bank, where Palestinians face identical administrative barriers regarding building permits.
The institutional framework supporting this automated campaign was solidified in April 2025, when the Israel Land Authority established a dedicated enforcement unit specifically mandated to operate inside the West Bank. The Israeli human rights organization Peace Now characterized the establishment of this body as a significant step toward de facto annexation, noting that the agency relies on cutting-edge AI tools to identify what it classifies as encroachments.
Amir Daoud, who leads documentation and publication at the Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission, noted that bringing this civilian body into the territory marks a profound institutional shift. Daoud explained that the surveillance and eviction apparatus previously honed in the Naqab is now being systematically exported into occupied Palestinian lands, effectively embedding an Israeli civilian governmental apparatus directly into occupied territory.
The operational speed of these operations has been drastically enhanced by recent leaps in satellite processing architecture. Palestinian digital media and technology specialist Khaled Safi detailed how modern surveillance assets have overcome the delays traditionally associated with human photo interpretation and terrestrial data analysis.
Safi explained that modern reconnaissance satellites now incorporate specialized computer chips and machine learning algorithms directly on board, transforming them into edge computing terminals operating in orbit. Instead of transmitting raw, massive image files to ground stations for subsequent review, the orbital platform analyzes the photographs instantaneously, pinpoints relevant physical developments, and transmits only the processed results or critical sections back to Earth.
The implementation of these automated processes has coincided with a dramatic escalation in structural destructions across the occupied territories. Joint research conducted by the Israeli human rights organizations Peace Now and Kerem Navot revealed an 80 percent rise in demolitions within Area C of the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem when comparing the 2010–2022 timeframe to the 2023–2025 period.
Between 2023 and 2025, an average of 966 Palestinian structures were flattened each year. The pace of these demolitions accelerated even further throughout 2025, with Israeli forces destroying 1,288 Palestinian-owned structures between January and September alone in regions under total Israeli administrative and security oversight.
Human rights advocates emphasize that the core danger of the technology lies in its capacity to streamline political goals. Daoud described the algorithms as an enforcement force multiplier that scans expansive territories, selects targets, catalogs recent structural developments, and compresses the timeline between initial warnings and final demolitions. Through this mechanism, the overarching political objective of displacement is executed at a substantially lower administrative and operational cost.
Requests for comment regarding the deployment of the ImiSight system and the reliance on edge-computing satellite surveillance in the occupied West Bank were submitted to the Israeli military and Rafael, but neither entity responded.
Comments (0)