The Israeli Ministry of the Interior has announced a tender for its national-scale Biometric Matching System. The tender - No. 82/2012 - released by the country's Biometric Database Management Authority – should be submitted by June 20, 2013.

Israel's biometric database will include biometric records of Israeli residents or citizens, consisting of two flat fingerprints and a face image. Each biometric record that is received by the Biometric Authority will be compared to records previously stored in the database. This is mainly in order to locate duplicate enrolments.

Israel has been moving towards a biometric database for some years. The country's "Inclusion of Biometric Means of Identification within Identification Documentation and Database Law, 5769 - 2009" regulates the integration of biometric data in identification documents in order to ensure the authenticity of these documents and to prevent the use of forged documents or false identities.

This law established a trial period of two years, commencing on the first of January 2013 (extendable for an additional period of two years). During this period, only those residents who agree to be included in the database will be processed. At the end of the pilot period a decision will be made as to the future of the database.

The Biometric Authority will purchase a biometric matching system comprising a database of at least two million new unique records, during the initial contract term (five years).