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Connect the World
World Central Kitchen: No Decision on Resuming Operations; Ongoing Rescues after Taiwan's Strongest Quake in 25 Years; Interviews Shed Light on U.S. Evacuation from Afghanistan; Israel Using AI to Pick Bombing Targets in Gaza; U.S. Recently Authorized more Bombs for Israel. Aired 9- 9:45a ET
Aired April 04, 2024 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:00:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSE ANDRES, FOUNDER OF WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN: We were targeted, deliberately, non-stop until everybody was dead in this convoy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ELENI GIOKOS, CNN HOST, CONNECT THE WORLD: World Central Kitchen Founder Jose Andres accuses Israel of systematically targeting its aid workers. It
is 5 pm here in Abu Dhabi, I'm Eleni Giokos. This is "Connect the World". Also happening the hour an angry President Biden is expected to voice his
frustration with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu in a call later today.
Searching for signs of life, rescue crews in Taiwan are racing against the clock, hoping to find hundreds still stranded after Wednesday's deadly
earthquake. And a shocking new investigation alleges Israel used artificial intelligence to pick bombing targets in Gaza. We'll be speaking to Israeli
journalist Yuval Abraham.
All right, Wall Street is set to open and around 30 minutes from now. Let's check in on those DOW futures and pointing to a higher start today at
around half a percent. We'll check in on those numbers as the markets open later on. Now U.S. President Joe Biden's phone call today with Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to be tense.
And that's according to a senior administration official that source says Mr. Biden is angry over the killing of seven World Central Kitchen aid
workers in an Israeli air strike in Gaza earlier this week, and will convey that message to Mr. Netanyahu if President Biden is angry about the deadly
strike the Founder of World Central Kitchen is furious.
And he's not accepting Israel's misidentification excuse. Jose Andres is accusing Israel of systematically and deliberately targeting the aid
workers. CNN's Brian Todd has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The 54 year old Founder of World Central Kitchen slamming the Israeli military for the attack that
killed seven of the group's aid workers in Gaza.
ANDRES: They were target, systematically, car by car.
TODD (voice-over): Celebrity Chef Jose Andres, in a jarring interview with Reuters describes how the vehicles in the team's convoy were fired on.
ANDRES: They attacking the first car, we have a feeling they were able to escape safely because was an armored vehicle. They were able to move in the
second one. Again, this one was hit. They were able to move in the third one.
TODD (voice-over): Andres says his team tried to communicate with the Israel Defense Forces at that moment.
ANDRES: In the chaos of the moment whatever happened they, to try to be telling IDF that why are they doing that they were targeting us in the
conflict in zone in an area controlled by IDF then knowing that were our teams moving on that route.
TODD (voice-over): Regarding Israeli claims that the attack was a mistake and unintentional Andres brushed back fiercely.
ANDRES: This was not just a bad luck situation where, oops, we dropped the bomb in the wrong place. Or no, this was over 1.5, 1.8 kilometers with a
very defined humanitarian convoy that had signs in the top in the roof, a very colorful logo that we are obviously very proud of that's very clear
who we are and what we do. It seems that what is happening in Gaza is like a true hunger games. This has to end.
TODD (voice-over): Andres went after the leadership of Israel and the U.S.
ANDRES: We are letting the people of Palestine down. U.S. must do more. I need to understand that this was not by somebody that is above law and
order that decided just to kill us because I don't know maybe because I did that tweet that was very strong against President Netanyahu.
TODD (voice-over): Andres repeatedly rejected Israeli and U.S. claims that the strikes on his team were not deliberate.
ANDRES: Even if we were not in coordination with the IDF. Not democratic country and not military can be targeting civilians and humanitarians.
Especially when the technology today allows you to know things in ways not too long ago was not possible. Those drones have eyes on everything that
moves in Gaza.
I've been there. These drones non-stop flying above you is nothing that moves that idea doesn't know but said that even nobody should be targeting
ever humanitarian organizations and civilians continuously.
TODD (voice-over): Asked if World Central Kitchen will start its operations again in Gaza. Chef Andres said their work is quote halted but that they're
analyzing the situation hour by hour to figure out how to keep doing the work. And in a pointed message to the Israeli Prime Minister.
[09:05:00]
ANDRES: I will tell to Prime Minister Netanyahu 200 humanitarians have diuretic tens of thousands of civilians have that. I'm so sorry. But I
think one humanitarian life is one to many. One child is one to many.
TODD (on camera): Again regarding this attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israeli forces, quote, unintentionally struck
innocent people. The IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi has said that the attack was a quote grave mistake. Other Israeli officials
have said the incident is being investigated at the highest levels. Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GIOKOS: And today's phone call between President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu comes as both leaders face global outrage as
the war carries on. They're also feeling increasing domestic political pressure. CNN's Jeremy Diamond has a part of the story for us.
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Eleni, we expect this phone call later today between Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Biden
to be a tense one.
The U.S. President set to share his frustrations with the Israeli Prime Minister, frustrations that have been boiling for months now as we have
been watching publicly as the White House has been growing increasingly vocal, increasingly critical of the Israeli military's handling of the war
in Gaza and Prime Minister Netanyahu stewardship of that very war.
But what we are not expecting for now are major shifts in U.S. policy towards Israel. Even as we have seen that rhetoric of ratcheting up from
the White House including from President Biden, who expressed his outrage earlier this week at the killing of those seven World Central Kitchen
workers.
We have also watched as the United States has continued to stand by Israel's war in Gaza, continuing to support Israel's fight against Hamas in
the Gaza Strip, and also continuing to supply the Israeli military with additional weapons shipments over the course of even just the last several
weeks.
From the Israeli Prime Minister's perspective as well, he has made clear that he will not bow to U.S. pressure, particularly on the prospects of a
ground offensive in Rafah. The Israeli Prime Minister characterizing that ground defensive as essential to taking out what he has described as Hamas'
last bastion inside of Gaza.
Now amid this external pressure, this pressure from the United States, the Israeli Prime Minister is also facing increasing domestic political
pressure. We have watched growing protests here in Israel, although still not of the kind of substantial number that we saw before October 7th.
And now is a Benny Gantz Netanyahu's chief political rival a member of Israel's war cabinet are calling for early election saying that he would
like to see elections by September before the one year anniversary of this war, the Israeli Prime Minister not exceeding to that call so far, but this
is another way of ratcheting up the pressure on Netanyahu.
But for now, there is no real mechanism, no obvious way in which this current coalition government would actually fall and so despite all of that
pressure, for now, Netanyahu very much firm in his position as Prime Minister, Eleni.
GIOKOS: All right, thanks to Jeremy Diamond for us there is reporting on that story. We also have analysis from Arlette Saenz who's been tracking
this for us from Washington. Arlette, we know that President Biden has used the harshest language yet to show his frustration and his anger when it
comes to the killing of the WCK's staff. The question now is, what does this core mean with Benjamin Netanyahu and what is the likely outcome?
ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, well, Eleni, President Biden is expected to convey his personal anger and frustration directly to
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when they speak in the coming hours. This death of the World Central Kitchen aid workers are really
serving as a latest flashpoint in an increasingly tense relationship between the two leaders.
But the big question going forward is whether this incident, this moment could serve as a turning point in the U.S. strategy when it comes to
support especially military support for Israel. So far, administration officials have said that there is no shift in policy and in fact, one
senior administration official says that there's no shift in policy.
But there is a shift in the president's personal frustrations, but there has been pressure among some even within President Biden's own party to
begin considering conditioning military aid, but it's provided to Israel, potentially saying that they would not provide other military assistance
unless there are taking greater cares when it comes to the protection of civilians and getting more humanitarian aid into the war torn enclave.
[09:10:00]
But for the time being, it does not appear that the U.S. is changing its strategy in any way. Now we expected this phone call will mostly focus on
the deaths and the strikes that caused the deaths of those World Central Kitchen aid workers. But the president's also expected to broaden out the
conversation a bit to talk about protections for aid workers in Gaza going forward.
One official telling CNN that the Biden Administration has already conveyed to Israel that they need to change the way they communicate about the in
transmit information about where exactly aid workers are stationed. We also anticipate that there could be discussions relating to the ongoing
negotiations to secure a temporary immediate ceasefire in exchange for the release of hostages and more humanitarian aid in.
And then there are the great U.S. concerns about a potential Israeli operation into Rafah. Last night Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with
his Israeli counterpart. A Pentagon spokesperson said that in that call, he expressed outrage for the deaths of those aid workers.
But he also stressed that this incident reinforces U.S. concerns about a Rafah operation. The U.S. has been pushing Israel saying that they need to
ensure that protection and evacuation of civilians, they're also ensuring that aid gets in to that region. But this really heightens the already
complicated dynamic for President Biden, when it comes to his handling of this crisis.
He is under significant pressure, politically here at home. He heard that firsthand on Tuesday evening, when he hosted leaders from the Muslim
American community here at the White House. And they voiced their concerns in person about his approach to this conflict, one of those attendees, even
walking out saying that not enough has been done for the Palestinian people.
So these are all a complicated dynamics. The president is trying to navigate at this moment, that phone call with the Israeli Prime Minister
today, is expected to be quite tense. But still very big questions about whether anything will impact the president's thinking when it comes to his
continued military support for Israel as they're trying to root out Hamas in Gaza.
GIOKOS: Exactly Arlette -- it's a very closely watched phone call and whether there will be consequences for Israel to reflect the anger from
President Biden. We'll catch up with you later Arlette Saenz for us in Washington. All right, Israel's military is making some major moves in
response to escalating tensions in the region.
The Israeli Defense Forces says it's going to increase recruitment and is calling up reservists for its air defense, and the IDF is temporarily
suspending leave for its combat units. This comes as Iran has vowed to retaliate after it accused Israel of bombing its embassy complex in Syria
on Monday.
Now the U.N. Security Council has failed to condemn that strike. A statement expressing condemnation was drafted by Russia but diplomat said
at a meeting on Tuesday, a U.S. backed by France and Britain told other members of the Security Council many of the facts of what happened in
Damascus remain unclear.
Our rescue operations are working around the clock in Taiwan after being struck by the strongest earthquake in decades. The 7.4 magnitude earthquake
struck the east side of the island on Wednesday morning. More than 700 people are still stranded and dozens are still unaccounted for.
Many are in hard to reach mountainous areas. At least 10 people have died and the number of injured has now surpassed 1000. Officials are warning
that aftershocks as high as seven magnitude may continue until the end of the week. CNN's Ivan Watson is on the scene in Hualien in Taiwan. Ivan, one
of the hottest areas, in fact in terms of where you are, tell me, what you're hearing and seeing and the status of the people that still need
rescuing?
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the good news is that the authorities here have announced that they've managed to rescue
some 30 hotel workers who had been trapped on a remote mountain road since Wednesday mornings 7.4 magnitude earthquake.
There are still hundreds of people more than 600, in fact, that the authorities say they're trying to reach which just illustrates the
challenges in the -- again, remote mountains which attract large numbers of tourists to this region, some of whom have been victims of falling rocks,
that crushed people in the aftermath of the earthquake.
Now here in this city, which is very close to the epicenter of the most powerful earthquake to hit Taiwan in a quarter century, you can see a very
strong example of the power of that earthquake over my shoulder right here, this building that is kind of careening on at an angle here, where
residents were rescued by members of the fire department in the hours after the actual earthquake.
[09:15:00]
The striking thing about this city is that just next door to this building other buildings survived the earthquake and made it intact. In fact, much
of the city doesn't seem damaged at all. By the incredible tremors which injured more than 1000 people including the mayor of the city, who I met in
a shelter earlier this evening.
He was on crutches a cupboard in his house had fallen on him. He attributes the relatively low death toll it's standing at 10 now, after this disaster,
10 people killed the body of a hiker was found this morning in the National Park about an hour's drive from here. He attributes the low death toll to
the fact that people in this town and in Taiwan in general are accustomed to earthquakes.
They're trained as children how to react to them. Another factor may be the fact that the Building Regulations were strengthened dramatically after a
deadly earthquake in 1999, killed more than 2000 people, or there could be a luck factor contributing to this as well. But I do have to report you
know, I wrote into this town on a train from Taipei remarkable that a little bit more than 24 hours after this disaster.
The train arrived in the epicenter here on time, but you could see from the train entire mountain faces that had collapsed in giant landslides. Just
bringing home how powerful the earthquake is. One final detail, Eleni, just in the last three hours, this county alone has experienced at least 10
aftershocks and those are believed it is predicted those will continue in the days ahead, back to you.
GIOKOS: Yeah, I mean, it's incredible just as even the building behind you that angle that the way that it's slanted and the buildings right next to
that still standing up straight, as you said, the Building Regulations really sort of creating that buffer, Ivan, great to have you on the ground
and bringing us that insight, Ivan Watson for us.
Well, you're watching "Connect the World" live from Abu Dhabi and ahead a CNN exclusive report. Congressional testimony says the plans for the U.S.
withdrawal from Afghanistan were created from scratch. We'll bring you an update on that. Plus we will have the latest on an investigation claiming
that Israel is using artificial intelligence to help pick bombing targets in Gaza. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GIOKOS: No time to prepare no plan in place. Exclusive CNN reporting uncovering new and troubling details about the chaotic evacuation of U.S.
citizens from Afghanistan in August 2021 after Kabul failed to the Taliban.
[09:20:00]
Congressional testimony sheds new light on the situation as U.S. officials were rushed to the scene of an unfolding crisis and tasked with organizing
a safe evacuation. One official brought in at short notice from Turkey told lawmakers the situation was evolving constantly. CNN's Kylie Atwood helped
break this very important story.
And Kylie reminds me about the chaotic scenes we're covering at the time and just the tragedy that ensued. Tell me what we've learned about the
planning or lack thereof when it came to this evacuation out of Afghanistan?
KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN U.S. SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, this testimony really does bring to life the behind the scenes chaos that was unfolding, while we
were seeing those public images of just how chaotic and how dangerous it was at the Kabul airport as the U.S. was pulling out of Afghanistan.
And these State Department officials provided testimony to the congressional investigators on the Hill. And what they said was it they
were plucked from their positions, serving on issues focus that had nothing to do with Afghanistan. Of course, they had all had experience in
Afghanistan during their time as U.S. diplomats.
But one was working, as you said, in Turkey, another one was working on Arctic affairs and other one was here in Washington asked to go and left
for Kabul 8 to 10 hours later, and James DeHart, one of these State Department officials that provided testimony, got into a dialogue with the
investigators that I do want to read to you here.
He was asked were you executing off of a specific plan. And he responded by saying, quote, I would say not really, we had to, I would say create from
scratch tactical operations that would get our priority people into the airport. He then added that they were roughly as effective as they could be
under the circumstances.
But it's quite clear from their testimony, that there was no overall plan that they were able to draw from, they were really creating systems as they
went along to try and get out those Americans. And I want to take a step back the Biden administration is doubling down, saying that it remains a
good thing that the U.S. pulled out of Afghanistan, that it was the correct decision to make.
It allowed them to focus on other foreign policy challenges, of course, noting the Middle East and Ukraine among those. And they also recognize
that there is a political motive here for the Republican who is leading this investigation. And that's because we're getting closer to the general
election in November.
And the Afghanistan withdrawal is a dark mark on President Biden's foreign policy legacy. And they believe that the investigators want to bring this
to the fore around the time of the election. So it's top of mind for the folks who are heading to the polls. Now the investigators say that there
will be a final report that synthesizes all of the transcribed interviews from State Department officials that they have.
So we'll watch and wait to see when that happens. But these are some really damning details about how this all went down and the ad hoc nature of this
evacuation that was orchestrated during the Biden administration.
GIOKOS: Yeah, and then we playing some of the images back from 2021 on that evacuation. Kylie, there was so many questions at that time. So really glad
that you were part of breaking the story, great to have you on the show. Thank you so much, Kylie Atwood for us. I want to get you up to speed now
on some other stories that are on our radar right now.
Zimbabwe's President has declared a National Disaster over the country's ongoing drought. He says the devastating dry spell linked to the climate
event known as El Nino, means close to around 3 million people will go hungry. Droughts are affecting a number of other countries across Southern
Africa, including Malawi and Zambia.
Now staying in Zambia, an 80 year old American woman was killed on a wildlife viewing trip when her tourist vehicle was charged by a bull
elephant. Another woman was taken to a medical facility in South Africa, while four more people suffered minor injuries. And China has reopened
access to Mount Everest to foreigners for the first time since the pandemic.
It's a path via Tibet many climbers think is safer. Only 300 permits for non-Chinese climbers are given out a year on the window to climb Everest
from there is small from late April to mid-May. And still to come this hour and investigation claiming that Israel is using AI to help pick bombing
targets in Gaza. I'll be joined by the author of that report, right after the short break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:25:00]
GIOKOS: Welcome back, I'm Eleni Giokos in Abu Dhabi, and you're watching "Connect the World". Israel is using artificial intelligence to help pick
bombing targets in Gaza. That is according to an investigation by 972 Magazine and Local Calls citing Israeli intelligence officials.
The online publication, which is run by Palestinians and Israelis, said that according to the officials, the AI based tool is called Lavender. And
although it's known to have a 10 percent error rate, human review of the targets it comes up with was cursory at best. Now the IDF did not dispute
the tool exists.
But it denied AI was being used to identify suspected terrorists. Now CNN cannot independently verify what's in this investigation. We have author of
the investigation, Yuval Abraham, who writes the results, as the sources testified is that thousands of Palestinians, most of them women and
children or people were not involved in the fighting were wiped out by Israeli airstrikes, especially during the first weeks of the war because of
the AI programs decisions.
Yuval joins us now live from Jerusalem, Yuval, great to have you with us incredible investigation. And I just want to read a small piece of your
report and you say Lavender learns to identify characteristics of known Hamas and PIJ operatives, whose information was fed into the machine as
training data, and then to locate these same characteristics, also called features among the general population, the sources explained.
Now an individual farms have several different incriminating features will reach a high rating, and that's automatically becomes a potential target
for assassination. Please take us through what your sources revealed and of course, the evidence here.
YUVAL ABRAHAM, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Yeah, so that description, just you know, by the way, I mean, it appears in a 2021 book, and not that book that
was signed anonymously, but what we discovered was actually written by the present commander of unit 8200, which is like the Israeli equivalent of the
NSA.
And that book is titled "The Human Machine Teams" how collaboration between AI and human beings can revolutionize the world and such a target machines
such as system with these feature exists in the book. Now, according to the six Israeli military intelligence sources that I've spoken with, as you
said, what Lavender does is that it collects information on almost everybody in the Gazan Strip.
[09:30:00]
One source told me it's 90 percent of the people so. So hundreds of thousands of people and it gives each one a rating based on the -- this
this long list of features. And the rating shows how probable the machine thinks that a particular individual is that belongs to the Hamas or Islamic
Jihad military wings.
And as sources said, when they were operating this machine, they were told two things. The first is that during the first few weeks of the war, they
were not forced to apply any thorough super supervision over the results so one source told me that he would spend roughly 20 seconds before
authorizing each target.
And the only supervision they -- he needed to do is to check if the targets the machine are marked was a male or a female. And the second thing as you
said, sources said that the machine would occasionally make mistakes. It would mark people who have a loose connection to Hamas or no connection at
all to Hamas as potential targets. And they knew that the supervision mechanism in place would not be able to find all of these mistakes.
GIOKOS: You know Yuval, I'm sure you've been seeing just the aftermath of the World Central Kitchen staffs that were killed seven people. And the IDF
came back and respond -- responded, this was a grave misidentification. And of course, have admitted their mistake.
When you saw the story playing out based on the investigation that you've been conducting, and the fact that you've just talked about errors that can
exist, what did you read? How did you respond to the story?
ABRAHAM: You know, so I don't have any information specific to that story. But what I was thinking is -- you know after talking to all of these
Israeli intelligence officers, the general feeling that I got from them really is a trigger -- would be an understatement, like they were using
these systems in an almost automatic way, and authorizing strikes, that's kills really entire Palestinian families for targets that they thought --
they said we're not important enough in the military's eyes to use expensive munitions on.
One source says that he calls these garbage targets. So when I heard what happened to the seven aid workers, I thought that -- you know I thought
Israel just did not know their internationals. But I immediately recalled - - you know the case in the beginning of March with the flower truck when 112 Palestinians around the aid trucks were killed.
The Israeli military said that it shot at some of them. I recorded "The Guardian" reporting that 14 cases like this of Palestinians being shot
around aid trucks happened before. And I was wondering, is the Israeli military saying this and issuing this apology because of what happened or
because of the identity of the victims. That's what I was thinking, you know, after speaking to all of these Israeli intelligence officers.
GIOKOS: Yeah. It's a very important point you make. I do want to also reveal what the IDF has said its statement.
ABRAHAM: Yeah.
GIOKOS: And it says contrary to the claims, the IDF does not use an artificial intelligence system that identifies terrorist operatives, or
tries to predict whether a person is a terrorist? Information systems are merely tools for analysts in the target identification process for each
target.
IDF procedures require conducting an individual assessment of that anticipated military advantage and collateral damage expected. So tell me
about what the IDF is response is and what your sources have been telling you that perhaps are in line with what the IDF is saying.
ABRAHAM: So by the way, I got the response. And I read it out some of the sources and we were both like -- they were -- one of them told me like,
it's just not true. And just to give -- you know the IDF says that it's not using an AI system to identify terrorists, according to what they said.
But in 2023, an IDF officer, the head of 8200 AI unit, said in a public speech at the university that they're using -- they have used AI to
identify terrorists. This is what he said in 2021 in the Gaza war. So there is very clear evidence of that happening. And that's why both me and the
sources we were like, why?
Why deny it? I mean, usually the IDF spokesperson person -- you know they give their version of things. And of course, it's -- you know, it's it will
be -- as any spokesperson, it will be. It's going to be some form of propaganda, but here, I really feel that it's completely misrepresenting
the systems that are in place.
About this specific assessment so what my sources told me is that for each of these AI marked suspected Hamas militants at the beginning of the war,
they received the sweeping predetermined authorization to kill up to 20 Palestinians civilians per junior Hamas target. Another source said it was
up to 15 civilians per Junior Hamas AI market target.
[09:35:00]
But that these numbers changed over time. And I think this is a really important point, because the machine that is -- you know marking these
people. These people are not being attacked, most of them according to sources when they are in combat, but actually when they are inside civilian
houses, when they are inside family households.
And there is another system called -- which simultaneously scans all of these thousands of AI marked people and looks for them when they are inside
civilian households. And I think one characteristic of this -- of this bombing campaign is that, indeed, entire Palestinian families were killed
by Israeli bombings when inside their houses. And I believe it has to do with the way the Israeli system -- mass surveillance is designed. And it
has to do a lot of these programs.
GIOKOS: I mean I'm glad that you mentioned the collateral damage, because that's been a lot of big question, right? So what -- you know what are the
numbers in terms of killing a militant versus that the collateral damage? And you've really portrayed that you said, up to 20 civilians for a junior
Hamas operative?
And that number increases for more senior military as well -- militants as well. But here's my question in terms of your sources. And of course,
you've got to protect your sources. What can you tell me about their seniority? And have they been reaching out to you more and more so because
you've appeared before on CNN talking about the other program called "Gospel" as well. So clearly, you're getting this information and quite
quickly, evidently, so.
ABRAHAM: Yeah. So I mean -- if I was thinking of a way to characterize the sources, I mean, I think -- you know, most of them were drafted to the
military after October 7th. And they were shocked by the atrocities of October 7th, by the kidnapping of hostages. You know many of whom are still
held unjustifiably in Gaza.
And I think according to at least some of them what they're saying, is that gradually -- you know when they were realizing the things that they were
being asked to do. They felt even more so. In some of them really taught me like, they feel directly responsible for the unnecessary killing of dozens
of families inside houses.
And they did not think that the targets that they were bombing using this AI lavender system, or at least not all of the targets that they were
bombing -- the people that justified -- you know killing so many Palestinians. And one source said something that really stuck with me, like
he said.
That he said even if all the targets that the machine creates, have some links to Hamas, even when the policy is so permissive, he said he felt it
was so permissive that it clearly had an element of revenge in it, meaning that these extremely high collateral damage degrees authorizing you know to
attack houses for -- according to the military unimportant targets.
That was partially motivated by revenge. And I think it's completely unjustifiable, and I'm happy these people are speaking out. And I hope
their testimonies really reach as many people also. Yeah --
GIOKOS: I mean its incredible reports. I want to ask you do you know who is behind producing these AI systems, these programs that are being used.
ABRAHAM: I don't know. I'm trying to investigate that myself. I do know, however, that more and more militaries are interested in these systems. I
think that AI based warfare is extremely dangerous. And it will become more and more widespread.
Judging by previous Israeli operations in Gaza, these systems that are used in Gaza are then sold to other militaries in the world. And I think one big
danger about this is accountability. You know, a lot of people would want to hold people who have committed -- you know certain crimes or war crimes
accountable for what they have done.
When -- you know when you have an algorithm that is making so many of the decisions, again, sources saying they spent 20 seconds, one sort of said he
felt like a human rubber stamp on these decisions. You know, it helps.
GIOKOS: Wow.
ABRAHAM: I think it could help people to evade accountability. So, so I'm really scared of the future of the world. Based on this AI based warfare, I
think it's completely dehumanizing. I think it allows militaries to bomb and maintain this aesthetics of international law, when in fact; it's not
abiding by international law. And I think its important people read about it and know about it. All of us we need to know about the dangers of this.
GIOKOS: Yuval Abraham thank you very much for joining us and sharing your findings with us today. It's great to have you on the show. Much
appreciated. Well, this also just into CNN, the Biden Administration recently authorized the transfer to Israel of thousands of bombs and that
is according to three sources.
[09:40:00]
The decision on the transfer happened before an Israeli strike on a humanitarian convoy. Meanwhile, three former British Supreme Court justices
have joined over 600 members of the UK legal profession to call on the government to halt its arms sales to Israel.
In a 17 page letter the lawmakers say it could make Britain complicit in genocide in Gaza, echoing the growing number of politicians urging Prime
Minister Rishi Sunak to change policy. You're watching "Connect the World". There's more news ahead stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GIOKOS: Welcome back. Liverpool will try to keep pace with rivals -- top the English Premier League on Thursday. The Reds take on bottom of the
table Sheffield United and win will take them back to the top. Amanda Davies has the story right after the short break and I'll be back at the
top of the hour, see you then.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:45:00]
(WORLD SPORT)
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