The use of AI-controlled lethal autonomous weapons is contrary to the principles of a just war. Human judgment must remain central in the decision-making loop for firing – for moral, practical and safety reasons. Giving autonomy to the firing decision itself constitutes a moral red line that must not be crossed. – Philosopher Marie-des-Neiges Ruffo de Calabre, in Le MondeWe write this piece because of our connections to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, from Gaza to Lebanon to Iran. We have known villages and towns that no longer exist in Lebanon; streets and homes in Gaza and in the West bank that have been erased. Large swathes of Beirut, once familiar, have disappeared along with millions displaced over the past two years.Human beings across millennia have demonstrated a capacity for creative genius, whether in farming, art, music, literature or more. But a genocide broadcasted live, coupled with the mass destruction of villages and towns at extraordinary speed, leaving thousands killed and injured, is equivalent to the end of time, where creative genius has morphed into a death machine. Automated weapons have been used by militaries worldwide for decades. They require pre-programming and their actions are undertaken within a defined area controlled by operators. A human is ultimately responsible and, in theory, bound by the laws of war.The United States and Israel have used automated weapons in air, land and sea warfare for years. Systematic air raids by the US and Israeli F-16 and F-35 jets and Merkava tanks that flood Gaza and Lebanon, mortar shells and sniper bullets targeting those taking shelter in hospitals and guided missiles used by resistance movements in Iran and Lebanon, have generally remained under human control. However, the recent face of war in the region is defined by the increasing use of AI-generated autonomous weapons systems (AWS), sometimes deployed in combination with traditional weaponry. Whilst both are lethal, only one carries accountability.Proponents justify use of AWS on grounds of enhanced military efficiency and reduced soldier casualties through algorithmic precision.Remote systems require human operators to control platforms from a distance. But autonomous systems, as the name implies, are based on machine learning, enabling AI to act independently. The major challenge lies in their speed and ability to strike multiple targets at once, leaving little room to alter course. In this war, given the number of dead and injured civilians in all three countries, any notion of proportionality, distinction or rationale for targeting has simply been ignored. Operations carried out through AI weapons systems, both automated and autonomous, are a systematic violation of the international law. Researchers at SETA (Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research) argue that Gaza, and now Lebanon, serve as battle-testing grounds for new weapons. War is no longer fought by soldiers alone. Algorithms decide who lives and who does not. The use of AWS is often clouded in secrecy. Their impact is reflected in the scale and speed of destruction experienced by their hapless victims, deliberately designed to create shock and awe. Following Hamas’ Operation Al-Aqsa Flood in October 2023, Israel used AI tools like Lavender and Habsora to identify bombing targets in Gaza. According to an investigative report by +972 and Local Call, the use of AI-based decision support systems led to a dramatic increase in violence against civilians and a dangerous erosion of accountability in warfare. According to an Israeli source:Nothing happens by accident. When a 3-year-old girl is killed in a home in Gaza, it’s because someone in the army decided it wasn’t a big deal for her to be killed – that it was a price worth paying in order to hit [another] target… everything is intentional. We know exactly how much collateral damage there is in every home.More than 260 journalists in Gaza and scores in Lebanon were killed while attempting to document the mass destruction.The Lebanese National News Agency (NNA) reported that 15 localities in southern Lebanon came under Israeli air, drone and artillery bombardment since early April onwards. All areas were heavily populated and medical facilities were completely overwhelmed. Similarly, in a blitzkrieg bombing of Beirut on April 8, the Israel Defence Forces claimed it had hit 100 targets in less than 10 minutes, omitting to mention the hundreds of civilians killed and thousands injured, along with ambulances, hospitals and infrastructure destroyed. A surgeon working at one of the frontline hospitals reported, “In a period of 10 minutes, over 1400 people were wounded and 350 were killed. The aim is to flood the system and to overwhelm it, to ensure that as many of the wounded as possible will die.” The scale and speed of the strikes effectively collapsed emergency response capacity and left ambulance services and hospitals unable to cope with the volume of casualties. On the first day of the US-Israeli war on Iran (Feb 28, 2026), one target of a Tomahawk guided missile was a girls’ primary school in Minab. More than 165 young girls and their teachers were killed. The US claimed there was an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) building adjacent to the school, suggesting outdated programming in the missile system, yet no responsibility was accepted. Iran says the school was well-known and clearly identifiable. While governments and nation-states have largely remained silent on the deadly use of AI-guided weapons systems in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran, scholars from across disciplines, defence analysts, human rights organisations, the World Health Organisation, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations have condemned their unchecked and unaccountable use. In its recent report “An Agenda for Peace,” the UN Secretary-General argued that despite widespread use of AI in conflict, machines cannot be held responsible for breaches of international law. Any decision by Lethal Autonomous Weapons (LAWS) must ultimately be traceable to a human. The report calls for a legally binding treaty to prohibit the use of LAWS without human control and oversight before the end of 2026.At a recent meeting in Geneva, academics and legal experts attempted to draw up a protocol for the use of AI in the military operations. Countries such as the US and Israel, however, do not agree with such regulations, claiming that AWS can be used for precision targeting, despite recent evidence suggesting otherwise.Researchers in the field of AI have also raised ethical and moral objections, stating that in their current form, AI-led weapons are unreliable and unpredictable for use in conflict. This view is echoed by defence analysts such as Michael Horowitz who suggests that premature and extensive use of AI and AWS by the military poses a major risk to international stability, since the pace of operation outpaces any human’s ability to manage or respond.A group of international NGOs formed a campaign called Stop the Killer Robots more than a decade ago against the use of AI in war: Technology should be used to empower all people, not to reduce us to stereotypes, labels, objects or just a pattern of ones and zeros. With growing digital dehumanisation, the Stop Killer Robots coalition works to ensure human control in the use of force. The systematic violations of international law, the absence of specific controls over the use of AI and the mass destruction and killing of civilians are together akin to a live testing ground for an AI arms race. The biggest challenge, of course, has been the silence of most states and the impunity with which rogue actors are utilising AI and AWS. These states till date have not abided by any laws for the protecting civilians and infrastructure during war, yet remain in charge of these deadly weapons.Whether through conventional or unconventional weapon systems, the destruction of villages is not just a destruction of family and community, but also a deliberate attempt to erase memory, history and identity.Kasturi Sen is an independent scholar based at Oxford. She has worked in the MENA region for four decades, primarily in public health in conflict settings and in primary care.Eduardo Missoni MD Is an academic and author of public policy management, who has also worked in conflict zones and recently co-authored work with Sen on rebuilding Gaza’s health care system.