[News] Israel to use facial recognition tech to 'screen' Palestinians in need of aid

[Anti-Imperialist News]

 Israel to use facial recognition tech to 'screen' Palestinians in need of
aid

The threat of total famine looms over the entirety of Gaza as a result of a
months-long blockade imposed by Israel

News Desk <https://thecradle.co/authors/news-desk-9>

MAY 15, 2025 -
https://thecradle.co/articles/israel-to-use-facial-recognition-tech-to-screen-palestinians-in-need-of-aid
(Photo credit: AP)

The Israeli cabinet has approved a plan
<https://www.biometricupdate.com/202505/israel-seeks-funding-for-plan-to-require-facial-recognition-in-exchange-for-food-in-gaza>
imposing new restrictions on the distribution of humanitarian aid and food
supplies in Gaza, including mandatory facial recognition.

“Palestinians would be coming to these places, registered and screened
through facial recognition technology. They’d pick up parcels for their
family,” said NPR journalist Daniel Estrin.

Israel says the plan aims to prevent Hamas from accessing humanitarian aid.
Yet Estrin cited an Israeli official as saying that “it’s actually part of
a bigger strategy to get Palestinian civilians to move en masse to a
smaller, more consolidated area of Gaza so that the military can expand the
territory that it’s taking over in Gaza.”

The *New York Times*
<https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/27/technology/israel-facial-recognition-gaza.html>
(NYT) had reported in March that Israel has already deployed facial
recognition programs in Gaza, using technology from private Israeli company
Corsight, as well as Google Photos.

“At times, the technology wrongly flagged civilians as wanted Hamas
militants,” it cited an anonymous Israeli intelligence officer as saying.
The program, initially used to search for Israeli captives held by the
resistance, was transformed into a mass surveillance initiative, according
to the report.

The UN has condemned the Israeli plan to make aid conditional on facial
recognition. UNICEF spokesman James Elder said it “contravenes basic
humanitarian principles” and is designed to “reinforce control over
life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic.”

Tel Aviv has recently approved plans to further expand its genocidal
assault on Gaza. Since renewing its war in March, it has seized at least 50
percent of the strip’s territory and has vowed to seize more. This has
coincided with the continuation of a total Israeli blockade,
<https://thecradle.co/articles/netanyahu-says-macron-stands-with-hamas-for-criticism-of-israeli-created-famine-in-gaza>
which
has seen the humanitarian situation in the strip deteriorate rapidly.

The UN has warned of a looming famine across the entirety of the strip.

On Thursday, US President Donald Trump renewed his calls for Washington to
assume control over Gaza.

Speaking from Qatar, Trump said he would support direct US involvement in
Gaza, suggesting that the US “take” the besieged territory and transform it
into what he called a “freedom zone.”

“I have concepts for Gaza … I’d be proud to have the US take it, make it a
freedom zone,” Trump said.

Medical sources told *Al Jazeera* on 15 May that at least 103 Palestinians
have been killed by Israeli airstrikes on Gaza since dawn.

Social media has been flooded with videos
<https://t.me/thecradlemedia/35037> and images of injured, including
children, arriving at hospitals.

Early on Thursday, Palestinian journalist Hassan Samour was killed in a
strike on his home, making him the 216th journalist to be killed by Israel
since the start of the war, according to Gaza’s Government Media Office.
Well-known Palestinian journalist Hassan Aslih was killed just two days
earlier in a strike on Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, where he was
recovering from wounds sustained during an Israeli attack on a media tent
last month.

The Health Ministry in Gaza announced on Thursday that the European
Hospital in Khan Yunis is now completely out of service after the massive
attacks carried out recently by the Israeli air force.

Specialized services including neurosurgery, chest surgery, cardiology, and
ophthalmology have been suspended, the ministry said, adding that the
hospital’s closure has also cut off cancer patients from accessing
life-saving treatment protocols.

Israel launched a series of powerful strikes in the vicinity of the
European Hospital on 13 May, killing at least 28 people.

Israeli media said dozens of bunker-buster munitions
<https://thecradle.co/articles/israel-escalates-massacres-after-dropping-bunker-busters-on-gazas-khan-yunis>
were used to successfully destroy an underground complex belonging to the
Palestinian resistance, and that Mohammad Sinwar – brother of late Hamas
chief Yahya Sinwar – was assassinated in the attack. His killing has yet to
be confirmed.
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