Watched, Tracked, and Targeted Life in Gaza under Israel's all-encompassing surveillance regime.

A crowd gathers for the aid trucks in Khan Yunis, Gaza, on October 12, 2025. Photo-Illustration: New York Magazine; Photo: Mahmoud Sabbah/Anadolu/Getty Images

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The seconds stretched. “Mohammed,” the soldier finally said. I didn’t react at first. Mine is a common name. Then he said my last name. I felt my breath stop. The soldier, his face masked, a rifle slung across his chest, gestured for me to step forward. The fear wasn’t of what they might find out about me but of what they already knew. My ID was still in my pocket. The practiced version of myself went dead. None of it mattered now. I had just been confirmed.

Israel’s military assault that began in the aftermath of October 7, 2023, has left Gaza unrecognizable. The campaign of mass killing, of severing communities, of making homes unlivable, was pursued with bombs and bullets and tanks. It operated, too, through a system of watching, knowing, and collecting us: drones that hovered endlessly overhead, quadcopters that dipped near windows and entered houses, facial-recognition scans at checkpoints, movements followed through phone tracking, calls that broke with static before an air strike. The Israeli army was using artificial

In response to a list of questions, the Israel Defense Forces said that claims that the Israeli military uses “systems that employ artificial intelligence to autonomously select targets for attack” and that “they attack targets inconsistently with international law” are “completely false” and that Israeli forces “have never, and will never, deliberately target journalists.” An IDF spokesman added, “The IDF is committed to international law and operates accordingly.”

I managed to flee Gaza two days after my encounter with the Israeli soldiers at Netzarim. Over the past year, with the help of two colleagues still in Gaza, I heard from more than a dozen people living under this regime of ceaseless watching. One of these people, Marwan, a 60-year-old hospital administrator in Gaza City, at first objected to my line of questioning. (I’m using only first names. Giving their full names in a report about surveillance feels like an offering to the occupation.) “In the face of mass slaughter,” Marwan said, “what difference does it make that they can see my Facebook posts or hack my calls or monitor my home?”

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https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/watched-tracked-targeted-israel-surveillance-gaza.html