NAZA: The Real Story

NAZA: The Real Story uses interviews with active intelligence officers and frontline commanders, declassified IDF recordings, combat footage, captured materials, and operational videos to contest the original film's allegations and present its creators' account of warfare in civilian areas, hostage-related constraints, and humanitarian-aid delivery.[1][4] It was aimed at international audiences as a public-diplomacy project and later received official recognition from Israel's National Public Diplomacy Directorate.[5][4]

NAZA is an 80-minute documentary directed by Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, co-produced by The Guardian, and based in part on reporting published by The Guardian, +972 Magazine, and Local Call between 2023 and 2025.[2][6] Its title abbreviates Nezek Agavi, a Hebrew military acronym for collateral damage — civilian casualties anticipated in an attack on a legitimate military target — a concept the IDF describes as referring to incidental civilian harm that commanders assess before deciding on potential strikes.[3]

The film features interviews with 24 anonymous individuals who identify themselves as Israeli military and intelligence personnel involved in Gaza operations.[3] Their testimony alleges that artificial-intelligence systems, particularly a database called Lavender, helped identify targets; that strikes were carried out against Hamas operatives at their homes despite foreseeable harm to family members; that permissive civilian-casualty thresholds were applied; and that a strike was authorized even though as many as 500 civilian deaths were anticipated.[2] The film also includes anonymous testimony from purported Unit 8200 soldiers and portrays Israeli military operations as a system of what it calls "calculated mass killing."[6]

NAZA premiered at the 2026 Venice International Film Festival, where it received the Special Jury Prize.[2] Its international theatrical release began in late September 2026, with distributors secured in 56 territories.[3] The Institute for National Security Studies archive lists a September 15, 2026, Ynet News opinion article by Guy Hazoot titled "‘NAZA’ puts the IDF on trial over Gaza, but leaves out how Hamas fought the war."[7]

NAZA: The Real Story was released with English subtitles in early October 2026 by filmmakers Ariel Orbuch (also identified in some sources as Averbuch), Lt. Col. Roy Danino, and Hagai Gutman, with other contributors not publicly named at the time for security reasons.[1][4] The film was produced as an explicit rebuttal to NAZA, with its creators stating that they wanted to shift Israel from what they described as the defendant's position in international debate.[1]

The documentary draws on interviews with active intelligence officers and frontline commanders, as well as declassified IDF recordings, combat footage, captured intelligence, enemy manuals, and operational videos.[1] Its three central subjects are efforts against Hamas's terror infrastructure, the operational complexity surrounding the hostage situation, and Israeli efforts to deliver humanitarian aid to civilians in an active combat zone.[4] Using these materials, the film argues that Hamas uses civilian buildings and neighborhoods for combat, deploys terrorists in civilian clothing, stores weapons in residential structures, and exploits humanitarian aid as part of a deliberate defensive strategy.[1][4]

Some filming took place at night on Tel Aviv rooftops as part of what Maariv described as the creators' low-profile public-diplomacy effort, and the film was produced with international audiences, journalists, and opinion leaders as its intended viewers.[4]

The Israeli American Council hosted the first US screening of NAZA: The Real Story on Manhattan's Upper East Side on October 12, 2026.[8] The event featured firsthand testimony from IDF reservists and raw footage described as documenting Hamas operations in civilian areas; co-creators Roi Danino and Ariel Averbuch were scheduled to join Lizzy Savetsky for a panel following the screening.[8] Mako likewise described the screening as the film's US premiere and said the documentary had been produced in direct response to the controversial NAZA.[9]

On October 8, 2026, Orbuch, Danino, and Gutman received certificates of appreciation from National Public Diplomacy Directorate head Tzipi Hotovely, who praised the film as presenting "Israel's truth and the morality of IDF soldiers."[5] The Prime Minister's Office characterized the film as featuring soldiers' testimony that challenges allegations against IDF soldiers and commanders.[5] Co-creator Hagai Gutman said in an interview that the team had seen enough evidence to understand the allegations in the original NAZA as "smears and a blood libel," and described their purpose as making "an explanatory attack film."[10]

After reviewing NAZA, the IDF issued a 10-page response calling its portrayal of targeting procedures "distorted, misleading and disingenuous" and alleging "substantial factual errors."[3] The military described its targeting process as one in which intelligence officers identify potential targets, relevant professionals plan strikes, and operational commanders decide whether to proceed; it characterized Lavender specifically as an intelligence database that assists analysts, not one that approves targets, and maintained that humans — not AI — identify targets and authorize strikes.[3][2]

The IDF explicitly rejected the film's most striking allegation, stating that it "has never planned, approved or carried out any strike in Gaza in which 500 civilians or anything close to that number were expected to be killed."[3] A competing interpretation of the film's "NAZA 500" material, attributed to Lt. Col. Sarit Zehavi (Res.) — described as having helped develop IDF civilian-warning and target-approval procedures — holds that the figure represents a preliminary collateral-damage estimate that triggers harm-reduction steps such as issuing warnings, switching to precision munitions, or cancelling a strike altogether, rather than constituting permission to kill 500 people.[2] An alternative account suggests the 500 figure referred to a temporary early-war estimate of cumulative daily risk across multiple preplanned strikes, not the expected toll from any single attack.[2]

The IDF's October 1, 2026, response also stated that casualty thresholds determine the level of command approval required — not that a fixed civilian toll is authorized — and noted that the filmmakers had supplied no specific incident details for independent verification and had not sought an IDF response before publication.[2] The military further questioned whether some anonymous interviewees had sufficient access to the targeting process to support the film's broader claims; director Yuval Abraham disputed that criticism, saying the filmmakers had verified their sources and the cases described.[3]

The IDF stated that its directives prohibit intentionally targeting civilians, require reducing civilian harm "to the greatest extent feasible," and do not permit treating civilians who remain after an evacuation warning as legitimate targets. It also said it reviews strike aftermaths and that those reviews have led to investigations of hundreds of incidents and operational changes based on lessons learned.[3] The reported response concluded: "Serious discussion of civilian harm requires a serious account of how decisions were actually made. The film does not provide one."[3]

The publicly available record leaves several questions about the film's sourcing unresolved. The number of interviewees alone does not establish independent corroboration: it does not clarify how many witnesses supported each specific allegation, how many had seen final strike orders, whether interviewees overlapped with Abraham's earlier journalism, or whether they drew on the same units or underlying information.[2] A Times of Israel analysis identified apparent differences between Hebrew testimony and English subtitles, along with missing details considered necessary to assess major allegations independently; Jewish Onliner reported the finding but did not reproduce the specific differences.[6]

Hundreds of Unit 8200 reservists signed a petition asking their commanders to investigate whether personnel from their unit had participated in the film.[6] In a September 10, 2026, AFP interview, directors Abraham and Szor connected the documentary to international political pressure, with Abraham expressing hope that Western governments would withdraw support and impose sanctions on Israel.[6]

The original NAZA generated an intensely charged political response within Israel. IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir called the documentary a "blood libel" and a "deliberate distortion of reality" and ordered an examination of possible legal action and whether classified material had been improperly leaked.[3] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it "incitement," and Culture Minister Miki Zohar said he would seek to revoke the filmmakers' Israeli citizenship on grounds of treason.[3] A graffiti mural depicting Abraham and Szor with the Hebrew word "Traitors" painted across their portraits was documented, though the source recording it did not identify who created the mural or where and when it appeared.[11]

Responses within Israeli film and media circles included support for showing the documentary. A JCFA-published opinion article asserted that Haaretz and approximately 200 Israeli filmmakers supported its broadcast; the same article said the IDF General Staff categorically denied a claim that Israeli filmmakers had given soldiers a platform.[12]