Israel deploys remote-controlled robotic guns in the West Bank

At two unrest in the occupied West Bank, Israel has installed robotic weapons that can fire tear gas, stun grenades and foam-tipped bullets at Palestinian protesters.

The weapons, located on a crowded Palestinian refugee camp and in a hotspot city in the West Bank, use artificial intelligence to track targets. Israel says the technology has saved the lives of both Israelis and Palestinians. But critics see one more step towards a dark reality in which Israel regulates its unrestricted occupation of the Palestinians while keeping its troops out of harm’s way.

The new weapon comes at a time of heightened tensions in the occupied West Bank, where the sharp increase in unrest during the year is seen as the deadliest since 2006. Victory belongs to the coalition along the line. The hard line of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, including by the far right, which has close ties to the settlement movement, has raised concerns about violence.

Twin turrets, each equipped with a sighting lens and a gun barrel, were recently installed atop a turret turret. surveillance camera overlooking the Al-Aroub refugee camp in the south West Bank. As young Palestinian protesters poured into the streets hurling stones and petrol bombs at Israeli soldiers, the robotic weapons unleashed tear gas or foam-tipped bullets at them, witnesses said.

About a month ago, the army also placed robots in the nearby city of Hebron, where soldiers often clash with Palestinian residents hurling stones. The military declined to comment on plans to deploy the system elsewhere on the West Coast.

Palestinian activist Issa Amro said Hebron residents fear the new weapon could be misused or attacked without accountability in potentially deadly situations. He added that people were also outraged by what they said was a weapons test on civilians.

“We are not a training and simulation place for Israeli companies,” he said. “This is something new that must be stopped.”

There are no soldiers next to the machines. Instead, the weapon is operated by remote control. At the touch of a button, soldiers nestled inside the watchtower can fire on selected targets.

The military says the system is being tested at this stage and fires only “non-lethal” weapons used for crowd control, such as foam-tipped bullets and tear gas. Residents of Al-Aroub say that the turrets have repeatedly flooded the hillside camp with gas.

“We don’t open the windows, we don’t open the door. We know we shouldn’t open anything,” shop owner Hussein al-Muzyeen said.

Robotic weapons are increasingly being used around the world, with militaries expanding their range of operations. use drones to carry out lethal attacks from Ukraine to Ethiopia. Remote-controlled guns such as the Israeli system in the West Bank have been used by the US in Iraq, South Korea along the border with North Korea and many Syrian rebel groups.

Israel, known for its advanced military technologies, is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of precision-guided missile-launched drones. It built a fence along the border with the Gaza Strip equipped with radar and underground and underwater sensors. On the ground, it uses a robotic vehicle, armed with cameras and machine guns, to patrol volatile borders. The military also experimented with and used advanced surveillance technology such as facial recognition and biometric data collection on Palestinians navigating occupation habits, such as obtaining Israeli travel permits.

“Israel is using technology as a means of population control,” said Dror Sadot, a spokesman for Israeli human rights group B’Tselem. She said that even supposedly non-lethal weapons like sponge bullets can cause extreme pain and even death.

The turrets at Al-Aroub were built by Smart Shooter, a company that manufactures “fire control systems” that, in their words, “dramatically increase the accuracy, damage, and situational awareness of the enemy. small arms.” The company boasts contracts with dozens of militaries around the world, including the US Army.

Speaking at the company’s headquarters in Kibbutz Yagur, northern Israel, Chief Executive Michal Mor said the gun requires humans to select targets and ammunition.

“They always have a man in the ring making decisions regarding legitimate goals,” she said.

She said the system minimizes casualties by keeping soldiers away from violence and limits secondary damage by shooting more accurately.

In a densely populated area like Al-Aroub, she said soldiers can track specific people in a crowd and lock turrets to specific body parts. The system only activates after algorithms evaluate complex factors such as wind speed, distance, and velocity.

The military says such safeguards reduce risks to soldiers and improve oversight of their activities. It also says the technology allows soldiers to target “less sensitive” areas of the body to minimize harm and avoid shooting at bystanders.

“In this way, the system reduces the possibility of inaccurate firing,” it said.

But Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine Director of Human Rights Watch, said Israel was on track to “move towards the digital dehumanization of weapons systems.” By using such technologies, Shakir said Israel is creating “powder buckets for human rights abuses.”

Violence in the West Bank has increased in the past few months as Israel ramps up arrests after a series of Palestinian attacks inside Israeli territory that left 19 people dead last spring. Violence has killed more than 130 Palestinians this year, and at least 10 other Israelis have been killed in recent attacks.

Israel says the attacks were aimed at destroying rebel infrastructure and it was forced to act because Palestinian security forces failed to act. For the Palestinians, the nightly attacks on their towns have weakened their own security forces and tightened Israeli control over the lands they want for the state they want. would like. Israel captured the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip during the 1967 Middle East war.

In Al-Aroub, residents said that the machinery burned without warning.

“It’s very fast, even faster than soldiers,” said Kamel Abu Hishesh, a 19-year-old student. He described near-nightly clashes where soldiers stormed the camp as automatic guns opened fire tear gas up and down the hill.

Paul Scharre, vice president of the Center for a New American Security and former US Army sniper, says that without emotion and with better targeting, automated systems have the potential to reduce violence force.

However, he thinks the lack of international standards for “killer robots” is a problem.

On the other hand, he said, it is only a matter of time before these automated systems are equipped to use deadly force.

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