An Israeli documentary alleging that military systems used in Gaza contributed to large-scale civilian deaths has opened in US cinemas, reigniting debate over Israel’s conduct during the war and Washington’s continued military support for its ally.
NAZA, directed by Israeli journalists Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, features anonymous testimony from Israeli soldiers and intelligence personnel who describe what they say were targeting practices in Gaza that accepted potentially high civilian casualties.
The film has already become one of the most controversial documentaries of the year. It received a 25-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Prize, while drawing fierce criticism from Israeli officials.
Its US release comes at a politically sensitive moment, with the war in Gaza continuing to divide American public opinion and congressional elections approaching.
What NAZA alleges about Israel’s targeting systems
The documentary’s title comes from a Hebrew acronym associated with the expected number of civilian or “collateral” casualties from an airstrike.
The film is built almost entirely around interviews conducted at night on rooftops in Tel Aviv. The faces and voices of the interviewees are concealed, with some using drawings to explain military systems and targeting procedures they say they witnessed or participated in.
Among the central allegations is that Israel used sophisticated surveillance and artificial-intelligence-assisted systems to identify potential targets in Gaza.
According to the former soldiers and intelligence personnel interviewed, one system processed information from large numbers of mobile phones and other surveillance data to identify people suspected of links to Hamas. Another system was described as recommending buildings or structures for possible strikes.
The interviewees also alleged that the systems could produce errors and that military decisions sometimes allowed for significant numbers of expected civilian deaths.
One former military source described an operation targeting a single suspected Hamas militant in which as many as 500 civilian deaths were allegedly anticipated. The Israeli military has denied that account.
The filmmakers say the documentary does not rely solely on newly recorded testimony. It builds on investigative reporting published between 2023 and 2025 by The Guardian, +972 Magazine and the Hebrew-language publication Local Call.
The Guardian has said the reporting behind the film involved more than 100 confidential sources, while the documentary itself features testimony from 24 anonymous Israeli military insiders.
Israeli military rejects the film’s conclusions
Israel’s military has strongly rejected the allegations presented in NAZA.
The Israel Defense Forces has said its rules explicitly distinguish between militants and civilians and require commanders to take steps to reduce civilian harm as much as possible.
The military has acknowledged the use of artificial intelligence and other technological tools, but disputes the suggestion that such systems independently decide who should be attacked.
According to the IDF, intelligence officers select and assess targets, while operational commanders make the final decision on whether a strike is carried out.
The military has also argued that some of the individuals interviewed by the filmmakers may not have had a complete understanding of the wider targeting process.
The IDF has accused the documentary of containing substantial factual errors and questioned the reliability and perspective of some of its sources. The filmmakers have rejected those criticisms and said their reporting was extensively verified.
The allegations therefore remain contested, with the documentary presenting the accounts of former Israeli personnel while the military disputes their interpretation of how its targeting system operates.
Film sparks backlash in Israel
The controversy has extended beyond questions about military operations.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has condemned NAZA and described it as antisemitic. An Israeli Cabinet minister has also threatened to strip the filmmakers of their citizenship, according to AP.
Abraham has said he fears returning to Israel because of the reaction to the documentary.
The filmmakers have also faced threats following the film’s premiere. The Committee to Protect Journalists and the International Documentary Association have issued statements condemning threats against the directors, while more than 2,000 people, including prominent Israeli filmmakers, have signed a petition supporting them.
The backlash has placed NAZA at the centre of a wider argument inside Israel over how the country’s conduct in Gaza should be discussed.
At its New York premiere, Abraham acknowledged the Hamas-led Oct 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which killed about 1,200 people and saw 251 people taken hostage.
But he argued that the attack could not be used to justify the killing of Palestinian civilians.
Gaza war remains deeply contested
The documentary arrives amid continuing disagreement over the scale and nature of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli authorities, and abducting 251 people. Israel subsequently launched a military campaign aimed at dismantling Hamas and recovering the hostages.
Gaza’s Health Ministry has reported more than 74,000 Palestinian deaths during the war. The ministry, which operates under the Hamas-run government, does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its overall death toll, although it says women and children account for roughly half of those killed.
Independent experts and UN agencies have generally regarded the ministry’s casualty records as broadly reliable, while Israel disputes many of the accusations directed at its military campaign.
Israel has repeatedly said that it seeks to minimise civilian casualties and blames Hamas for operating in densely populated areas and using civilians as human shields, an allegation Hamas denies.
Human rights organisations and experts, meanwhile, have accused Israel of serious violations of international law, including allegations of war crimes and genocide. Israel strongly rejects the genocide accusation.
Against that backdrop, NAZA seeks to focus attention on the internal workings of Israel’s military campaign rather than simply showing images of destruction in Gaza.
Why the US release matters
The documentary’s American release gives its allegations a potentially wider political audience.
The filmmakers argue that the debate is not only about Israel’s actions but also about the role played by the United States, which has provided extensive military and diplomatic backing to Israel throughout the conflict.
An academic study cited by the filmmakers estimated that the Biden and Trump administrations provided at least US$21.7 billion in military assistance to Israel during the first two years of the war.
Abraham has argued that American audiences should understand how US support relates to the events described in the documentary.
That argument is particularly contentious in the United States, where support for Israel has become an increasingly divisive political issue. Democrats and Republicans have both experienced internal disagreements over the war, US arms transfers and the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
The film’s arrival ahead of congressional elections could therefore give an already polarised debate another flashpoint.
Limited theatrical release before free streaming
NAZA is being released in the US without a traditional major distributor.
It is currently showing at New York’s IFC Center, with a wider rollout beginning Oct 9 in cities including Austin, Chicago, Los Angeles and Seattle.
The documentary is also being released internationally with assistance from independent film studio mk2.
Following its theatrical run, NAZA is expected to become available to stream for free on The Guardian’s website in late November. The film is scheduled for release in more than 50 territories.
Its US rollout follows the unusual distribution path taken by No Other Land, the Oscar-winning documentary made by Abraham and Szor with Palestinian filmmakers about life and demolitions in the occupied West Bank.
That film was also self-distributed in the United States and ultimately generated more than US$2.5 million in domestic ticket sales after its Oscar success.
For the directors of NAZA, however, the ultimate goal appears to be less about box-office performance than about forcing a broader discussion.
They say the documentary is intended to bring previously reported allegations to audiences in Israel, the United States and elsewhere and to challenge what they view as a lack of public scrutiny over the consequences of Israel’s military campaign.
The film’s US opening ensures that those allegations — and Israel’s forceful rejection of them — will remain part of the international debate over Gaza, civilian casualties and the responsibilities of the governments supporting the war.
