The United Kingdom’s controversial rollout of facial recognition technology will rely on software that appears to have already been deployed in Gaza, where it is used by the Israeli army to track, trace, and abduct thousands of Palestinian civilians passing through checkpoints.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced on Monday that British police would massively increase the use of facial recognition technology used for surveillance purposes.
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Enquiries by Al Jazeera to the Home Office’s procurement agency, Blue Light Commercial, confirmed that the Israeli-based firm Corsight AI had been subcontracted by UK company Digital Barriers to provide the artificial intelligence-powered facial recognition software.
Under the Home Office’s proposals, the UK’s current fleet of 10 live facial recognition vans will be expanded to more than 50, which will be deployed nationwide to identify individuals on police watchlists, raising fears over civil liberties among campaigners and concerns about its accuracy among Israeli intelligence operatives who have used it in Gaza.
Announcing their selection as one of three suppliers of the software in April, following a six-month trial by police in Essex, Digital Barriers confirmed that it and its subcontractor, Corsight, had been selected to be part of what it said was a 20 million pounds ($27.6m) roll-out.
However, despite the UK government’s belated – if tempered – criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza, where it has widely been accused of committing genocide, it has pressed forward in partnering with a firm that has operated as part of Israel’s surveillance architecture in Gaza.
Essex police previously declined to comply with a Freedom of Information request granted to the advocacy group Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) in April 2025, asking if their officers had met directly with representatives of Corsight. Essex police claimed that determining that information would exceed cost and time limits, a statement from AOAV read.
Israeli connections
In March 2024, more than a year before Corsight and Digital Barriers were selected by the UK government, the New York Times reported that Corsight technology was being deployed in Gaza by the Israeli cyber-intelligence division Unit 8200. However, misgivings over its accuracy, including the wrongful arrest and detention of hundreds of Palestinians, led to a number of Israeli security officials expressing their doubts about the system to reporters.
Israel has been repeatedly criticised for its use of artificial intelligence in Gaza, including the use of AI to identify bombing targets.
Corsight’s website shows its board of directors includes a former Israeli intelligence officer, Igal Raichelgauz. Other members include a former Israeli security, or Shin Bet, officer, Yaron Ashkenazi, and retired Major-General Giora Eiland, who is said to have given his name to the so-called “General’s Plan“, to isolate and starve northern Gaza in October 2024.
The conditions imposed upon northern Gaza as a result of that plan are thought to have killed more than a thousand people, through either direct bombardment, sickness or starvation, and reduced the area’s healthcare system to rubble.
Shortly after the imposition of the siege, the UK took issue with Israeli actions, condemning them
at the United Nations. Also writing at the time, the UK’s former Foreign Secretary David Lammy criticised Israel’s tactics of siege and starvation, describing the conditions that Israel had imposed upon northern Gaza as “dire” and urging for aid to be allowed in.
Responding to the news of Corsight’s involvement in the UK police scheme, Amnesty International’s UK Crisis Response Manager, Kristyan Benedict, said, “The UK government has clear legal obligations to help prevent and punish genocide and is still scandalously failing to meet its responsibilities.”
“The government must ban investments in companies and financial institutions contributing to maintaining Israel’s genocide, unlawful occupation, and system of apartheid, including companies involved in weapons production, surveillance, and policing equipment or technology,” Benedict added.
Al Jazeera has written to the UK home secretary to ask what, if any, due diligence was carried out in selecting partners for their rollout of facial recognition technology, but has yet to receive a response.
Questioned by Al Jazeera, a Home Office Spokesperson declined to comment on what they described as “operational matters”. Numerous attempts to contact Corsight and Digital Barriers have also gone unanswered.
