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10 April 2026

The proliferation of AI-enabled military technology in the Middle East

Noor Hammad

Militaries’ investments in artificial intelligence-enabled military technology highlight a requirement for further regulation to maintain the strength of international-humanitarian law and protect civilians, and the inability of existing governance frameworks to manage commercial providers.

The Israel–Hamas war of May 2021 was described in the Israeli press as ‘the world’s first AI war’, integrating a number of new artificial intelligence (AI) systems into military technologies, from new target-identification processes to enhanced weaponry. Since then, the integration of AI into military technologies has progressed in leaps and bounds, with countries across the region seeking to make AI a part of their military architecture. Much of this has involved partnerships with commercial entities, from Israeli start-ups to big-tech corporations including Amazon, Google and Microsoft. As these entities have shown a tendency to circumvent their self-professed human-rights commitments and due-diligence obligations, greater regulation will be required to protect civilian lives and infrastructure during armed conflict.

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