Gaza documentary with Israeli whistleblowers premieres at Venice Film Festival

A documentary featuring testimony from 24 Israeli military and intelligence insiders about AI-enabled killings of Palestinian civilians in Gaza premiered Thursday at the Venice Film Festival, offering what its makers call a detailed look at the targeting systems behind the war's massive civilian toll.

"NAZA," directed by Oscar-winning Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, is the only documentary competing for the Golden Lion at this year's 83rd Venice International Film Festival, which runs through September 12.labiennale+1

What the Film Reveals

The documentary, shot at night on Tel Aviv rooftops, features 24 Israeli military or intelligence figures who agreed to testify on camera with their identities concealed. They describe how mass surveillance of Gaza's telecommunications network was combined with AI technology to identify individuals for assassination.zeta

"We show in our film a targeting system that is, by design, targeting people in civilian spaces, in their family homes," Abraham told Reuters.reuters

The film's title comes from a military acronym used by Israeli intelligence to indicate the expected number of civilian casualties in an airstrike. "Mass civilian deaths were routinely built into Israeli military targeting decisions in Gaza," Reuters reported based on the documentary's content.hollywoodreporter+2

Abraham told AFP that the filmmakers wanted to hear "in as much detail as possible, how the systems of killing in Gaza looked like, how they operated". The film builds on reporting published between 2023 and 2025 by the Israeli-Palestinian +972 Magazine, the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call, and Britain's Guardian newspaper.abcnews+2

A Growing Body of Gaza Cinema

"NAZA" was a late addition to the Venice competition, announced on August 24 after what organizers described as weeks of safety discussions around the screening. It was produced by the Guardian and James Wilson of JW Films, with executive producer Jonathan Glazer — the team behind Auschwitz-set Oscar winner "The Zone of Interest".wikipedia+2

The premiere follows a pattern at Venice of films examining the Gaza conflict. Last year, "The Voice of Hind Rajab" won second prize after a record 23-minute standing ovation. Earlier in this year's festival, "Citizen Osama," about a Gaza photojournalist, premiered and was selected as Palestine's entry for the 2027 Academy Awards.U.S. News & World Report+1

The Filmmakers' Call

Abraham and Szor previously co-directed "No Other Land," which won the 2025 Oscar for best documentary. Both investigative journalists, they said they hoped the new film would push Western nations to apply sanctions on Israel.abcnews

Israel denies deliberately targeting civilians in Gaza, accusing Hamas of hiding among the population. Abraham said he had concluded that Israel's government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was "violating the Genocide Convention of 1948".zeta

The Committee to Protect Journalists says more than 200 Palestinian journalists have been killed in Gaza since October 2023. Foreign journalists have been prevented from independent reporting in the territory since the start of the conflict.zeta