An Israeli documentary investigating the military’s use of artificial intelligence in Gaza received a 25-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival.
Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor directed the 80-minute NAZA. They shared the 2025 best documentary Oscar for No Other Land with Palestinian filmmakers Basel Adra and Hamdan Ballal.
Testimony Reveals AI-Assisted Targeting
The film follows a nearly three-year investigation and features 24 Israeli military and intelligence insiders. The filmmakers concealed their identities by digitally altering their faces and voices. Interviews took place at night on Tel Aviv rooftops.
“We are letting the soldiers and the officers speak about what they did,” Abraham told AFP. “The goal was very simple: we wanted to hear, in as much detail as possible, how the systems of killing in Gaza looked, how they operated,” he added.
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The title refers to a Hebrew intelligence euphemism for the number of civilians expected to die in an air strike. Witnesses describe “Lavender”, an AI-assisted system that reportedly analysed phone calls, movements and interactions to select targets.
“It was done on a mass scale, like a factory,” one interviewee says. Another says the process is “like a video game, because everything is done remotely” and calls it “insanely fun”.
Film Alleges Systemic Civilian Harm
Participants discuss destroyed homes, disregard for humanitarian law and a “general atmosphere” of “hatred” toward Palestinians.
“There can be no denying what intelligence personnel knew”, military sources say. They “witnessed with their own eyes and ears that the homes they were ‘incriminating’ were filled with families”.
Abraham urged Western governments to pressure Israel through sanctions.
“Those of us inside Israel and Palestine trying to fight for change need it. You are weakening the people inside who are supporting human rights and a political solution by refusing to act,” he said.
Writing in +972 Magazine, the directors said civilian deaths were “not a ‘tragic byproduct’ of a war against Hamas… but a premeditated, calculated, and intentional act”.
Israel says it tries to prevent civilian casualties and accuses Hamas of operating in residential areas. Its military acknowledges using AI but says humans authorize strikes.
Documentary Competes for Golden Lion
Screen International called NAZA an “urgent, gut-punch”. The Hollywood Reporter said it provoked “outrage… indignity as well. Most certainly disgust, on a profound level, for the current Israeli regime”.
The Guardian and British producer Jim Wilson produced the film, while Jonathan Glazer served as executive producer. Wilson and Glazer previously worked on the Oscar-winning The Zone of Interest.
NAZA is the festival’s only documentary competing for the Golden Lion. Last year, The Voice of Hind Rajab received a 23-minute ovation and won Venice’s second prize.
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Gaza’s Health Ministry says Israel’s campaign has killed about 73,500 Palestinians and wounded 174,500 since October 2023. Israel launched it after Hamas-led attacks killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostages.
Israel continues to bar foreign journalists from independently entering Gaza, except on tightly controlled visits with its military.
