AI and urban warfare in the Israel-Hamas war

The war between Israel and Hamas has been reverberating throughout the whole region since it began on Oct. 7. In addition to the fighting in Gaza between the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Hamas, other fronts have become active.

Along Israel's northern borders with Syria and Lebanon, daily exchanges of fire occur between the IDF and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah. Israel has also come under fire from Hamas fighters based in Lebanon and Syria. Meanwhile, the Yemen-based Houthi rebel organization has joined the attacks, firing on southern Israel.

The Houthis have also taken responsibility for attacks on Western commercial ships in the Red Sea, aligning themselves with Hamas and Iran, Israel's broader adversary.

One of the added elements of this current warfare is the use of attack drones and sophisticated unarmed aerial vehicles (UAVs).

As Israeli troops advance in the Gaza Strip, traditional urban warfare also unfolds, despite its complexity.

“This is the first time Israel is faced with such a multifaceted, multifront war,” Prof. Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies, told The Media Line. “There is also an option of the war expanding further.”

Iran's proxies against Israel

Israel is carefully eyeing Iran, which has been lurking in the background, providing support for both Hezbollah and Hamas throughout the last decades.

“All of the fronts are orchestrated by Iran, the leader of the ‘resistance axis, ’” Michael said. “What we are seeing is a regional war with global consequences.”

The deployment of drones and UAVs in military operations is not a new development. While UAVs of various levels of sophistication have been used in warfare since the 1970s, the first widespread use of drones was seen in the Russia-Ukraine war.

“In the coming years, we will see terrorist and guerilla organizations replace the Kalashnikov rifle with a drone,” said Rotem Mey-Tal, CEO of Asgard Systems, a Tel Aviv-based military technology company specializing in the fields of defense, homeland security, and aerospace.

“It is an unpredictable asymmetrical weapon that can fly in any desirable direction with an exceptional ability to avoid radar detection. It can be kinetic, offensive, carry out cyberattacks, and hunt its targets. It is accessible and can be easily upgraded. It is a tiebreaker in the battlefield,” he told The Media Line.

“What we are seeing on the battlefield now, it’s the coming to fruition of years of work on both sides,” Mey-Tal concluded.

When Hamas started the war with a surprise offensive, the armed group used drones as part of its attack on Israeli tanks and military outposts on the border. Videos surfaced on social media showing scores of Hamas operatives launching drones into Israeli territory. Some of them were seen positioning themselves above Israeli military tanks, landing on them with explosives.

According to defense experts, the drones used by organizations such as Hamas are often bought online from platforms such as eBay and AliExpress. With the help of online workshops, they are then upgraded to military-grade, often carrying grenades or mortar shells.

“This is an attempt to close the gap between a sophisticated army and a terrorist organization,” said Michael. “This war has highlighted the paradox of the weakness of power. There is no symmetry between the abilities of the army and the terrorist organization, in which state power becomes a weakness.”

Israeli tanks seen in Gaza in the current round of fighting can be seen with a defense pergola attached to them, a makeshift roof that is meant to withstand the initial impact of offensive drones.

Hamas does not have the new generation of UAVs, which are challenging Israel on its northern borders and farther away in the region. In recent decades, Iran has developed the Mohajer, a UAV whose 10th generation was unveiled just this year. It has the capability of carrying up to 300 kilograms of cargo, meaning its firepower is large. Itan is believed to have given the Houthis in Yemen such vessels, some of which may have been used in recent maritime attacks.

Adapting to new technology 

All these new technologies have forced the IDF, alongside other Western armies, to adapt.

“Throughout the years, Israel collected a lot of data from our surveillance systems about potential threats and civilian systems. It then trained the machine-learning engine how to detect whether the threat is a military one or not,” said Mey-Tal. “Israel invested massive amounts of money in advanced decision support system engines, which can classify the type of threat, using artificial intelligence (AI) to hunt effective threats and ignore the ones that are not effective.”

Israel, which is an island economy, is limited in its resources and dependent on the US for replenishment of its aerial defense interceptors. The AI-based systems allow for a calculated use of those interceptors. Drones or rockets that are determined to land in open areas will not be intercepted.

“One battalion of soldiers is more expensive than a team working on AI-based robotics,” Mey-Tal added.

On Monday, the Israeli military expanded its operation in the southern Gaza Strip. After almost two months in which the IDF told residents of Gaza to evacuate to the south, it is now faced with the concentration of the majority of the territory’s population in the area it is seeking to target. The south of Gaza is considered to be the hideout of Hamas' senior leadership and the area in which the terrorist organization conceals much of its weapons.

“We are witnessing intense fighting that has never before been conducted by the IDF,” said Michael. “Fighting against a terror organization that embeds itself within the civilian population in one of the most populated areas in the world is very, very complex.”

Before using ground troops, Israel pounded the Gaza Strip with airstrikes in an attempt to make the ground incursion easier. It first concentrated on the northern Gaza Strip. On Friday, after a temporary cease-fire collapsed, the IDF began operating with more intensity in the south. International pressure on Israel to stop its war on Gaza is mounting. This translates into a more intense IDF effort, with limits. Last week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Israel and urged it to limit civilian deaths and mass displacement.

“The fighting in the south [of Gaza] is being conducted much more surgically, trying to develop methods that will help cope with heavily populated areas,” said Michael.

According to the UN, almost 2 million of Gaza’s residents have been displaced. The majority of them pushed into the south of the Strip, adding to the population already there. There is concern about a large-scale humanitarian crisis.

The IDF dispersed a map among residents of Gaza that divides the south into dozens of blocks where residents are directed to flee ahead of Israel's military incursions. It is hard to gauge the public response. While many Palestinians heeded Israel’s earlier call to evacuate the north, evacuating the south will be much more challenging. Most of Gaza’s residents have nowhere else to go, making the map somewhat redundant.

“The use of hi-tech measures allows the IDF to compensate for its inability to exercise its full power,” said Michael. “But, still, Israel is using a fraction of its power against Hamas in Gaza.”

The battlefield in Gaza and other areas in the region provides a glimpse at the future of warfare with highly sophisticated systems, battling relatively simple but sneaky weapons. Both sides continue the race to find solutions to the new challenges continuously posed by each other.