24 Israeli Military Insiders Detail Alleged Gaza Targeting Practices in New Documentary

A new documentary featuring testimony from 24 Israeli military and intelligence insiders has put alleged Israeli targeting practices in Gaza under scrutiny, with former personnel describing systems they say factored anticipated civilian casualties into military operations.

NAZA, directed by Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, two of the four co-directors of the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, premiered at the Venice Film Festival on Thursday.

Secret Testimonies Expose Alleged Targeting Methods

The documentary was made in secret over three years, with the interviewees filmed at night in Tel Aviv. Their identities, faces and voices were concealed because of the potential risks associated with speaking publicly about their military work.

The group includes intelligence officers and soldiers who say they had direct knowledge of surveillance, targeting and strike operations carried out during the Gaza war. The Guardian, which produced the film, reported that some participants worked in secret intelligence units.

Several participants describe the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and other automated systems to help identify suspected Hamas members. The accounts allege that some targets were attacked inside residential buildings even when military personnel knew relatives or other civilians could be present.

Reuters reported that the film's testimonies describe an AI-assisted targeting system using data gathered from thousands of hacked mobile phones to locate suspected targets before strikes were ordered.

Civilian Deaths Allegedly Treated as Part of the Calculation

One of the documentary's central themes is the Israeli military term 'NAZA', which the filmmakers say refers to the expected civilian casualties associated with a planned strike. Abraham told Reuters that the film depicts a targeting system allegedly designed to identify people in civilian settings, including their family homes.

He said some operations could involve hundreds of such designations, potentially resulting in the destruction of entire villages or neighbourhoods.

'We show in our film a targeting system that is, by design, targeting people in civilian spaces, in their family homes. Sometimes it can be 500 NAZA ... destroying entire villages or entire neighbourhoods,' Abraham said.

The claims are based on the accounts of the anonymous interviewees and form the basis of the documentary's examination of the military system. The filmmakers say their focus is not on isolated acts by individual soldiers but on the policies, procedures and technology they believe enabled the reported pattern.

Film Causes Debate at Venice

The documentary's claims have attracted attention because its subjects are presented as people who worked within Israel's military and intelligence structures. Abraham and Szor, who previously won an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature for their film No Other Land, said the film was intended to connect individual testimonies with the systems behind military decision-making and not simply document battlefield incidents.

The film is competing for the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Its premiere was met with an extended standing ovation, reported by Reuters as lasting about 25 minutes.

However, the accounts presented in NAZA remain allegations made by anonymous former or current Israeli military personnel and are not, by themselves, proof that every claim applies across the Israeli military.

The Israel Defense Forces has previously said its strikes are directed at military targets and that it takes measures to mitigate harm to civilians.

The Gaza war's enormous civilian toll remains the subject of international investigation and dispute. Gaza health authorities reported that more than 73,000 Palestinians had been killed since the war began following the Hamas-led 7 October 2023 attacks on Israel.