A documentary made by Israeli filmmakers that examines Palestinian civilian deaths during the war in Gaza has ignited a fierce political storm in Israel following its special jury prize win at the Venice Film Festival.
The film titled “NAZA” features testimony from 24 Israeli military insiders including intelligence officers and soldiers who describe what they call the deliberate and systematic killing of Palestinian civilians. The project was filmed covertly over three years on Tel Aviv rooftops under the cover of night.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly condemned the film’s creators this week calling their work antisemitic incitement. “When it comes from within us it is simply unbearable” Netanyahu said in a statement Monday.
Israel’s Culture Minister Miki Zohar went further calling for co-directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor to be stripped of their Israeli citizenship. The head of the Israeli military Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir ordered prosecutors to investigate which soldiers may have participated in the project.
The documentary alleges that Israel employs artificial intelligence systems to identify and select bombing targets in Gaza with commanders allegedly aware that large numbers of civilians would likely die in those strikes. The Israeli military has confirmed using AI in target identification but maintains that a human being authorizes every strike before it is carried out.
“NAZA” is co-produced by The Guardian and Jonathan Glazer who directed the 2023 Oscar-winning film “The Zone of Interest.” It is the second documentary from Abraham and Szor following their 2025 Oscar-winning film “No Other Land” which documented Palestinian displacement in the occupied West Bank.
In an interview with Israeli Channel 13 Abraham said the hostile reaction from officials demonstrated precisely why the film’s participants requested anonymity. He also challenged Israeli media for failing to investigate military conduct and civilian death tolls during the conflict.
“Many soldiers told me they had been waiting for a chance to talk about this” Abraham said.
The Guardian defended the film’s sourcing saying the testimonies were gathered through confidential journalistic methods and that the accounts are credible and deserve public attention.
The backlash underscores a deep divide in how the Gaza war is perceived domestically versus internationally. Most Israelis view the conflict as a justified response to the Hamas-led attacks of October 7 2023 which killed approximately 1,200 people and resulted in 251 hostages being taken. Internationally the war has drawn widespread condemnation with Gaza health authorities reporting at least 73,789 Palestinian deaths since the conflict began. The film has not yet been released to the public though the filmmakers have said they plan to seek distribution in Israel the United States and Europe.