JERUSALEM, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- The award-winning documentary "NAZA," named after the Hebrew military acronym for "collateral damage" and accusing the Israeli army of mass civilian killing in Gaza, has triggered a fierce backlash in Israel in recent days.
Israeli military chief Eyal Zamir called its allegations "blood libels" and ordered legal officials to examine possible action and investigate whether classified information had been leaked.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the film "outrageous" and accused it of contributing to what he described as global "antisemitic incitement."
Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar accused the filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor of "treason against the state" and called for examining whether their citizenship could be revoked, while threatening sanctions against institutions that screen the film.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir circulated an artificial intelligence (AI) -generated video depicting them behind bars.
The rage spilled onto social media, where the filmmakers faced a torrent of anger and abuse, including death threats.
Analysts say the heated political climate ahead of Israel's October election has stoked the backlash. By contrast, when Abraham and Szor premiered the film at the Venice International Film Festival on Sept. 10, it received a nearly 25-minute standing ovation and later won the Special Jury Prize.
Abraham told Israel's Channel 13 he feared he might not be able to return home, but said it was "critical" for Israelis to see the film and learn about the military's actions in Gaza. He said efforts were underway to distribute it in Israel.
The 80-minute film, produced by The Guardian and directed by Abraham and Szor, is based on interviews with 24 Israeli soldiers and military intelligence whistleblowers involved in Israel's operations in Gaza. They were filmed at night on rooftops overlooking Tel Aviv, speaking anonymously to protect their identities.
"NAZA," a Hebrew shorthand, refers to the number of civilians expected to be killed or injured in a strike. The documentary examines the systems used to select and approve targets in Gaza, including AI-assisted tools, and alleges that expected civilian deaths were routinely calculated before attacks were authorized.
In one testimony from the trailer, an intelligence officer describes how a detailed map of Gaza can be opened at the click of a button, showing the estimated number of people who would be harmed if a particular building were bombed.
"I can literally click on any house and see how many people will be harmed when you bomb it," he says.
"This is a film about a system," the filmmakers wrote in +972 Magazine, an online Israeli-Palestinian magazine.
They said that the film examines "orders, policies, and patterns of operation, not deviations from them," and shows that mass civilian killing was not merely a "tragic byproduct" of the campaign against Hamas but was knowingly incorporated into military decision-making.
An Israel Defense Forces spokesperson told Xinhua on Tuesday that the military "categorically rejects these allegations," saying the film relies on anonymous testimonies whose identities and roles cannot be verified and includes claims beyond the interviewees' likely knowledge. The spokesperson said strike decisions are made "by human personnel only," not AI, and that the military operates under international law, seeks to minimize civilian harm, and investigates suspected violations by soldiers.
The controversy has exposed the gulf between perceptions of the Gaza war inside Israel and abroad. In Israel, the war continues to be viewed widely through the trauma of the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed about 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostages. Internationally, Israel's conduct has generated mounting allegations of war crimes.
On Tuesday, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said the recovery of the "remains of what appears to be entire families" from sites pulverized by Israeli attacks raised new concerns about war crimes. More than 8,000 people are believed to remain buried beneath Gaza's rubble, he said.
Gaza-based health authorities said Tuesday that at least 73,789 Palestinians have been killed and 174,798 injured in Israeli attacks since Oct. 7, 2023. ■
