IMPORTANT READ…..
Our @globalempowermentmissionmena & @globalempowermentmissionua mission leads have extensive experience in these matters. One of our team members in Gaza was a Gunnery Sergeant in the US Marine Corps, working as a Logistics and Operations planner. He also worked as an Operations Officer in the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense. We have been doing similar humanitarian runs on the same road that this happened on.
The labeling of a targeted attack can have a multitude of meanings. Outlined below is a potential explantion on Al technology. This MUST be immediately analyzed so this can NEVER happen again.
Al systems performs target identification, but the process of target neutralization still requires human review and release of the payload. We believe the lAF drone teams had preemptive approval to neutralize possible threats, rather than having to request target review and final approval post identification.
That belief leaves an opening for two things to be correct at the same time: While the convoy was indeed intentionally targeted, the lAF may not have known it contained WCK workers, because the process did not include a standard target review after being identified, to include looking at deconfliction data for that area.
This possiblity allows civilian entities to be right in saying the attack was intentional, while also allowing AF to say that they didn’t intend to kill aid workers.
The failure is, IMO, that the target was not seriously considered after target identification, regardless of the identification method being Al or human. Israeli military units, like the drone teams, should revisit their rules of engagement and change operations from preemptive authorizations, to adopting a ‘responsive’ system for target neutralization that requires review of deconfliction data.
We chose to write this because we feel it’s important that aid groups are not discouraged from supporting Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Palestinians need us more than ever now and we cannot turn our backs on them.
We are all they have at this point. Without food, water and medical support, over 2 M people’s chances of survival would be extremely low. @bbcnews