Israel seeks funding for plan to require facial recognition in exchange for food in Gaza

Israel’s cabinet has approved a controversial plan to reorganize and put new limits on the distribution of food aid in Gaza – including a requirement to perform facial recognition. But for now, its requests for funding from foreign countries have gone unheeded.

In a podcast from NPR, journalist Daniel Estrin describes the proposed system: “Palestinians would be coming to these places, registered and screened through facial recognition technology. They’d pick up parcels for their family.”

Israel is claiming the operation is an attempt to isolate aid from Hamas. But, Estrin says, “an Israeli official tells us 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.”

Israel has been phasing in biometric technology for border control in the West Bank since 2024. Its military has deployed facial recognition in Gaza using technology from Corsight and Google Photos, according to the New York Times. There are no details on which company would deploy facial recognition for use on those seeking food.

The United Nations has condemned the plan, which involves consolidating food aid at “four to 10 designated aid centers in southern Gaza,” as an attempt to use aid as bait.

A release quotes UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) spokesperson James Elder, who says the plan to move food distribution to the south and to require facial recognition tech “contravenes basic humanitarian principles” and appears designed to “reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic.”

The Gaza Strip has been under a complete aid blockade for more than two months. A memo obtained by The Times of Israel, written by the Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) acknowledges that civilians in Gaza are currently “enduring extreme deprivation.” The consolidation of food is expected to have the capacity to feed only 60 percent of Gaza’s remaining population, raising the risk of mass starvation.

While Israel hopes to push ahead with the plan as part of its larger push to ethnically cleanse certain areas of Gaza and occupy it, it may have a hard time finding a financier. According to the Times, the UAE rejected a request to bankroll the biometrics-for-food plan.

Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Palestinian population of Gaza “would be moved, for its own protection.”

Article Topics

biometrics  |  facial recognition  |  Israel  |  Palestine