Israeli Military Publishes 10-Page Letter Criticizing Venice Jury Prize-Winning Documentary 'NAZA'

On Thursday, the Israeli military released a ten-page document sharply criticizing the documentary NAZA and its directors, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor. The film examines an automated system that, according to the documentary, has been used over the past three years by many Israeli military members to kill tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip. The military accused Abraham and Szor of spreading false and defamatory information about its operations. In its rebuttal, the military claimed it follows precise, binding directives that explicitly, comprehensively, and clearly distinguish between combatants and uninvolved civilians in Gaza. It also rejected as false one of the film's central allegations: that the military planned, approved, and carried out attacks in Gaza where the deaths of 500 civilians were anticipated. NAZA has been part of international public debate for weeks after winning the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival and due to the intense backlash it provoked in Israel. The documentary is based on interviews with 24 anonymous Israeli soldiers and intelligence members, who describe what the film presents as the normalization of massacres committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip after October 7, 2023, when Hamas killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in Israeli territory. The title NAZA is an expression coined by the Israeli military, derived from the Hebrew words nezek agavi, meaning 'collateral damage.'