Digital Rights Weekly Update: 3 - 9 July 2026

Policy Insight:

Our news roundup this week reinforces the urgency of the risks posed by surveillance technologies and artificial intelligence, demonstrating how emerging technologies are actively undermining human rights, democratic institutions, and civil liberties. From spyware targeting elected representatives investigating unlawful surveillance, to mounting evidence of AI-enabled military targeting and mass surveillance developed and tested on Palestinians before reaching global markets, the warning signs are impossible to ignore. These technologies do not remain confined to one geography; they spread, scale, and normalize harmful practices far beyond Palestine.

As governments, experts, and international organizations convene this week to shape the future of global AI governance, this is a pivotal moment to ensure that human rights are not treated as an afterthought. Strong safeguards, meaningful transparency, and enforceable accountability must become the foundation of technological development. Innovation should advance human dignity, not erode it. The choices made today will determine whether digital technologies serve people or systems of unchecked power.

News Digest

Pegasus in the European Parliament, the EU must act now

European Federation of Journalists

On 3 July, 2026, a forensic analysis by the Citizen Lab revealed that Stelios Kouloglou, former Member of the European Parliament and investigative journalist, was targeted and infected with Pegasus spyware, developed by NSO Group, on or around 21 October 2022, and again on 6 and 7 March 2023. At the time, Kouloglou was serving as a substitute Member of the Parliament’s Committee of Inquiry to investigate the use of Pegasus and equivalent surveillance spyware (PEGA Committee). This revelation is especially alarming because of the specific institutional context in which the targeting occurred. A member of the very committee mandated to investigate spyware abuse in Europe was targeted during key moments of that inquiry, which raises grave concerns about the integrity of parliamentary oversight, the protection of independent institutions in line with separation of powers, and the ability of elected representatives to scrutinise state surveillance without intimidation or interference as part of a legitimate exercise of their duties.

850,000 ‘targets’: Experts alarmed by scale of Israeli AI targeting

MRONLINE

The Israeli military’s digital command system identified an average of 1,000 potential targets per day during the first two years of its wars in Gaza and Lebanon, according to a presentation by Elbit Systems, a figure that raises grave questions about civilian protection and the legality of targeting decisions. The data, presented at a Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) land warfare conference in London last week, revealed that between October 7, 2023, and the end of 2025, the Israeli Tzayad (Hunter) digital army programme detected a total of 850,000 “real-time intel targets” across all fronts of the recent wars “Israel” waged. The slide, shown by Miki Edelstein, an Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) reservist major general and executive vice-president of Elbit, highlighted the system’s role in enabling “high-tempo operations” and generating more than 20,000 battle plans. The 850,000 figure encompassed people, vehicles, and other objects detected in real time for potential follow-up strikes from land, sea, or air.

Largest Open Digital Archive Documenting Gaza Genocide Initiated

EUPAC

A new digital platform aimed at documenting the Israeli genocidal war in Gaza has been officially launched, offering the largest open-access archive of visual materials from the Israeli genocide. The platform, titled (ArchiveGenocide.com), is designed to collect and organize photos and videos from Gaza in a centralized, searchable database accessible to researchers, journalists, and human rights advocates without requiring full archive downloads. According to the project’s organizers, the archive currently includes more than 64,500 video clips and nearly 18,000 images gathered from over 300 journalists and field sources. Users can download individual videos, browse a searchable index, and access geolocation data linked to specific materials. The platform also features an interactive map that is continuously updated to reflect events in chronological order, as well as a database containing the names of victims documented during the Israeli genocidal war. Developers of the project said the archive remains a work in progress, noting that the scale of the material requires extensive time for verification and cataloguing. They emphasized that efforts are ongoing to expand the database with additional content.

Killing by Algorithms: How Israel Turned AI into a Machine of Annihilation in Gaza?

Alquds Press

Field and technical reports have revealed a radical shift in Israeli military doctrine, where reliance on artificial intelligence and big data has become a fundamental pillar in managing operations in the Gaza Strip. These technologies, developed for human well-being, have been harnessed as tools for digital killing and mass surveillance, leading to an unprecedented acceleration in targeting. These developments coincide with the aggression entering its thousandth day, amidst international criticism of the role of global technology companies in providing the necessary platforms for these operations. The process of identifying targets in Gaza is shifting from the traditional field level to a complex technical level, where digital data is integrated into unified intelligence systems. The US-backed Civil-Military Coordination Center plays a pivotal role in linking field operations with digital intelligence networks. Satellite images, biometric data, and drone signals are processed by AI systems before the final results are sent to combat units.