VENICE: The opening in U.S. theaters of the "NAZA" documentary, in which Israeli military insiders describe what they say was the reckless killing of civilians in Gaza, is likely to rekindle the searing debate over America's military support for Israel ahead of congressional elections.
Israel's wartime conduct has sparked global outrage, as have the billions of dollars in American military support provided by the Biden and Trump administrations. The war has bitterly divided Democrats and some Republicans.
The film received a record 25-minute standing ovation when it debuted at the Venice Film Festival. The backlash in Israel, which holds its own elections at the end of this month, has been just as thunderous.
"NAZA," named for the Hebrew acronym for collateral damage, contends that Israel used sophisticated systems -- some operated by artificial intelligence -- to hunt and kill suspected militants, carrying out strikes the military knew would kill large numbers of civilians.
The Israeli military has "categorically" denied the filmmakers' findings and threatened to track down the soldiers who spoke to them. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the film was antisemitic, and a Cabinet minister threatened to strip the filmmakers of their citizenship. Yuval Abraham, one of the co-directors, fears he won't be able to return home.
At the New York Film Festival premiere last month, a few dozen protesters gathered outside showing images of Hamas' October 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war. Abraham acknowledged the "massacre" and said it was "completely unjustified."
"But it also cannot justify what you've seen in the film … (the) slaughter of so many civilians in Gaza, the massacres at food sites," he said.
Soldiers describe alleged atrocities
Abraham and co-director Rachel Szor knew the documentary would spark controversy. Their previous film, "No Other Land," made with two Palestinian filmmakers about the struggles faced by Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, got a similar split-screen reception – winning an Oscar but infuriating many in Israel.
For all the bombastic claims surrounding it, "NAZA" is stark in its minimalism. There are no talking heads, no file footage of airstrikes – just interviews at night on Tel Aviv rooftops with individuals whose faces and voices are obscured. Some use pen and paper to draw what they are describing.
One recalls targeting people on their way to a food distribution site, while another likens the remote killings to playing a video game. The filmmakers say the subjects spoke anonymously for fear of retaliation and that their claims were carefully vetted.
"We wanted it to be a simple film," said Szor. "There is something very scary about someone drawing systems that are causing mass killing."
The subjects talk about developing and using an AI tool to process surveillance in Gaza and suggest targets with Hamas connections, creating a database of tens of thousands. Another AI tool recommends buildings and structures to target, they say.
The interviewees say the systems make mistakes. One subject said approval was given for an operation targeting one Hamas militant that anticipated 500 civilian deaths. The military has denied that claim, but Israeli strikes on senior militants often killed large numbers of civilians.
Most of the key reporting in "NAZA" has been published before, by the Israeli-Palestinian +972 Magazine, the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call and The Guardian, which produced the film.
The military has issued a lengthy rebuttal
The Israeli military has condemned the film. It says orders "explicitly, comprehensively and clearly distinguish" between militants and civilians and that it strives to minimize civilian harm "to the greatest extent feasible."
It acknowledged using AI but said the selection of targets is done by intelligence officers and the decision to strike is made by operational commanders. It said many of the interviewees did not seem to be aware of the larger targeting process.
The reporting overall is based on interviews with over 100 confidential sources, done in collaboration with The Guardian's investigation desk between 2023 and 2025.
"After you watch the film, it becomes much harder to doubt that these are real people," Abraham said at the New York premiere. "It's all truthful, it's all vetted and we feel very, very confident about it."
Experts and major rights groups have accused Israel of genocide over the killing of civilians, the destruction of most of Gaza and aid restrictions that fueled widespread hunger. Israel adamantly denies the allegations, saying it tried to spare civilians as it responded to Hamas' Oct. 7 attack and fought to uproot the militants from dense residential areas.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 other people in the Oct. 7 attack, all of whom have since been recovered, alive or dead.
Israel's offensive killed over 74,000 Palestinians, including more than 1,400 since a fragile ceasefire took hold a year ago, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.
Part of the Hamas-run government, the ministry maintains detailed records seen as generally reliable by independent experts and U.N. agencies. Its figures do not distinguish between militants and civilians, but it says women and children make up around half the dead.
The film's rollout will be limited
"NAZA" is arriving in theaters without a traditional distributor in the U.S. It's now playing at New York's IFC Center, and abroad with the help of independent film studio mk2.
On Oct. 9 it opens in more cities, including Austin, Chicago, Los Angeles and Seattle. In late November, it will be available to stream free on The Guardian's website.
"No Other Land" was also self-distributed in the U.S. and became a modest success following its Oscar win, with over $2.5 million in domestic ticket sales.
The Committee to Protect Journalists and the International Documentary Association have released statements condemning threats against the filmmakers. Over 2,000 people, including prominent Israeli filmmakers, have also signed a petition supporting Szor and Abraham.
The filmmakers say the goal from the beginning was to disseminate information, which is why they didn't sit on the reporting ahead of the film's release. They hope for a wider viewership in Israel, where the focus is still on the Oct. 7 attack with little discussion of the plight of ordinary Palestinians.
But they also want Americans to see the film and to understand the role their own government played. An academic study published last year found that the Biden and Trump administrations provided at least $21.7 billion in military assistance to Israel in the first two years of the war.
"Much of what is being described was done with American taxpayer money," Abraham said. "My country did it, but they would never have been able to do it without (American) diplomatic (and) military support."
