New documentary exposes Israeli military’s AI-driven killing system in Gaza

“There are no innocents in Gaza,” is said to be the belief which lay at the heart of Israel’s system for selecting and attacking targets in the besieged enclave, according to Israeli soldiers and intelligence officers interviewed for a new documentary exposing how the military authorised the mass killing of Palestinian civilians.

NAZA, directed by Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, draws on three years of interviews with 24 soldiers and intelligence personnel involved in Israel’s targeting operations. Their testimony describes a military apparatus that combined AI-assisted targeting, mass surveillance and predetermined civilian casualty thresholds to approve strikes in Gaza.

According to +972 Magazine, where Abraham is a journalist, the soldiers describe a system in which attacks on homes were authorised despite advance knowledge that civilians would be killed, including in cases where the intended target had little military significance. “You understand that the objective is to destroy,” one officer recalled.

The premise described by the interviewees also reflected statements made at the highest levels of the Israeli state. Days after 7 October, 2023, Israeli President Isaac Herzog declared that “an entire nation” in Gaza was responsible, dismissing arguments that civilians were unaware of or uninvolved in the Hamas-led attack as “absolutely not true”. South Africa later cited Herzog’s remarks in its genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.

The title NAZA comes from an Israeli military term referring to the number of civilians expected to be killed in a planned attack. The documentary shows how so-called “NAZA approvals” allowed strikes to proceed despite commanders knowing in advance that civilians would die.

READ: Israel’s AI system for target selection has generated ‘mass assassination factory’ in Gaza

The film premiered in competition at the Venice International Film Festival on 10 September, 2026. Abraham and Szor, two of the filmmakers behind the Oscar-winning No Other Land, filmed the soldiers and intelligence officers at night in Tel Aviv, disguising their faces and voices to conceal their identities. Jonathan Glazer served as an executive producer.

The filmmakers argue that the testimony challenges Israel’s claim that civilian deaths were an unavoidable consequence of its war against Hamas. Instead, the documentary portrays the killing of Palestinians as the foreseeable result of established targeting policies, operational procedures and authorised civilian casualty thresholds.

NAZA builds on investigations published by +972 Magazine, Local Call and the Guardian into Israel’s use of artificial intelligence and automated surveillance in Gaza.

One of the systems exposed in earlier reporting was Lavender, which Israeli intelligence sources said generated a list of around 37,000 Palestinians suspected of being low-ranking Hamas operatives. Officers reportedly relied heavily on its recommendations, sometimes with only minimal human scrutiny, before approving attacks.

Another system, known as “Where’s Daddy?”, monitored people selected for attack and alerted Israeli personnel when they entered their family homes. Intelligence officers told +972 Magazine and Local Call that suspected low-ranking operatives were often deliberately attacked at home, including at night when family members were present.

The documentary was produced by the Guardian and James Wilson, with Glazer among its executive producers. Its premiere at Venice reportedly received a standing ovation lasting nearly 25 minutes.

The film comes as the Palestinian death toll from Israel’s assault on Gaza has surpassed 73,000. A UN commission, leading human rights organisations and genocide scholars have concluded that Israel’s conduct in Gaza amounts to genocide.

READ: Israel’s AI-powered genocide of the Palestinians