At a military base in the south of Israel in the control center, five soldiers tracked the movement of hundreds of thousands of Gaza citizens on a huge screen. The screen displayed the living map of the northern part of Gaza, a densely populated area with about 1.1 million inhabitants, which the Israeli army recently recommended moving south for their own security. Using data, mainly collected from over 1 million mobile phones, the system allowed soldiers to assess, in real time, how many Gaza citizens were complying with the Israeli requirement.
The Israeli army shared with The New York Times details of the data tracking system, which demonstrates that the soldiers are making efforts to minimize civilian casualties. The screen depicted different colors for different areas:
- White and red indicated that most inhabitants were still in their homes.
- Green and yellow indicated that most residents of the district had left, with an increasing number of these areas.
“This system is not perfect, but it provides vital information for decision-making. The colors indicate what we can and cannot do,” stated one military personnel overseeing the monitoring process.
The final approval for the ground operation has not yet been granted, and the Israeli army remains on standby without crossing the Gaza border. The army continues to monitor the number of civilians leaving the northern region of Gaza.