An Israeli-made documentary alleging systemic harm to civilians during Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has triggered one of the most intense reactions of this year’s film festival season — winning a top prize at Venice while simultaneously drawing a forceful public rejection from Israel’s military and sharp political backlash at home.
What the Film Is
NAZA is directed by Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, who previously co-directed No Other Land, which won the 2025 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. The film’s title references a Hebrew military term associated with the expected number of civilian casualties authorities anticipate in a planned strike. Built on roughly three years of investigation, the 80-minute documentary is based on interviews with 24 Israeli soldiers and intelligence personnel who describe their involvement in the military’s targeting operations during the Gaza war. To protect their identities, interviewees were filmed at night on Tel Aviv rooftops, with their faces and voices digitally altered. Jonathan Glazer, director of The Zone of Interest, served as an executive producer, and the film was produced in part by The Guardian.
What the Film Alleges
According to the filmmakers and interviewees featured in the documentary, the film describes a military system that combined AI-assisted targeting, mass surveillance, and predetermined civilian-casualty thresholds to approve strikes in Gaza. Some interviewees allege that certain planned operations proceeded despite an expectation that anywhere from a handful to as many as 200 or 500 civilians could be killed. Interviewees also described what they characterized as a general atmosphere of hostility toward Palestinians within military ranks, along with accounts of witnessed destruction of civilian homes.
It’s important to note these are allegations made by anonymous interviewees whose claims have not been independently verified or adjudicated by any court or investigative body — the film presents their testimony, but that testimony represents their account of events rather than an established, confirmed record.
The Israeli Military’s Response
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) issued a detailed, forceful rejection of the film’s central claims. The military’s core objection centers on verifiability: it says the documentary relies on anonymous testimony from individuals whose identities, military roles, and actual involvement in the events described cannot be confirmed. On the specific allegation involving AI, the IDF stated that decisions regarding the selection and approval of strikes are made exclusively by human personnel in accordance with military guidelines, not by artificial intelligence, though it has separately acknowledged using AI as a supporting tool in intelligence work.
The military went further on the specific casualty-threshold claims, stating on its official channels that it has never planned, approved, or carried out a strike in Gaza anticipating anywhere near 500 civilian deaths, and that no credible claim was raised during the war suggesting any single strike caused casualties near that scale. The IDF also criticized what it called incorrect use of legal terminology by non-legal professionals and pointed to what it described as internal contradictions in some of the film’s claims. It noted that any soldier who witnessed a genuine violation is obligated to report it through formal channels — including, it said, the individuals interviewed for the film.
Reception at Venice and Beyond
| Milestone | Detail |
|---|---|
| World premiere | Venice Film Festival, September 10, 2026 |
| Award | Special Jury Prize |
| Standing ovation | Approximately 25 minutes — reportedly the longest in Venice Film Festival history |
| Next screening | North American premiere at the New York Film Festival, running Sept. 25–Oct. 12, 2026 |
The Political Fallout in Israel
The film’s reception has sparked a notably sharp domestic political response. According to reporting, an Israeli government minister publicly criticized the filmmakers in strong terms, and calls have emerged — including reportedly from Israel’s culture minister — to revoke the filmmakers’ citizenship, an extraordinary response to a documentary film. The directors have said they intend to pursue distribution of the film within Israel itself, describing that as a priority despite the backlash.
Part of a Broader Pattern at Venice
NAZA’s prominence marks the second consecutive year a film centered on the Gaza war has drawn major attention at the festival, following The Voice of Hind Rajab the previous year — suggesting sustained interest from the international film community in documentary and dramatic work addressing the conflict, even as such films continue to generate significant controversy in Israel.
Final Thoughts
NAZA sits at the center of one of the most fundamentally contested questions of the Gaza war — what actually happened inside Israel’s targeting and strike-approval process — with the film’s anonymous military sources making serious allegations that the IDF has just as forcefully and specifically denied. Neither account has been independently adjudicated, and the intensity of both the international acclaim and the domestic Israeli backlash suggests this dispute is likely to remain unresolved and highly contested as the film reaches wider audiences through its upcoming New York premiere.
