At the Venice Film Festival, the Gaza documentary NAZA received a roughly 25-minute standing ovation and won the Special Jury Prize.
asserted
documentary → receive → Prize
Even its title announces the film’s frame.
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title → announce → frame
NAZA is a Hebrew military acronym meaning “collateral damage.”
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NAZA → mean → damage
The film was directed by Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor.
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film → direct → filmmakers
Before most of the public had seen it, it was already being promoted as an exposé of Israel’s “calculated mass killing of Palestinian civilians.
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it → see → civilians
That is not a question being investigated.
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That → investigate → ?
It is a verdict being announced.
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It → announce → ?
The evidence problem
NAZA relies heavily on testimony from 24 anonymous Israeli military and intelligence personnel.
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NAZA → rely → personnel
Whistleblowers sometimes need anonymity.
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Whistleblowers → need → anonymity
But anonymity raises the burden of corroboration because viewers cannot independently assess a source’s role, access, or reliability.
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viewers → raise → role
A detailed review of the film’s sourcing found that viewers often are not told an interviewee’s precise role, proximity to the event described, or whether several witnesses independently corroborate a particular allegation.
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witnesses → find → allegation
Consider the film’s most explosive claim: that approval was once given for a strike expected to kill 500 civilians to eliminate one Hamas target.
uncertain
approval → consider → target
Yet the film reportedly supplies no date, target, or location.
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film → supply → date
The Israeli military says no such strike was ever planned or carried out.
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strike → say → ?
Even the subtitles deserve criticisms.
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subtitles → deserve → criticisms
In one example, a statement that “Ahmad and his entire family” were in a home reportedly becomes “Ahmad and his entire family will die.”
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Ahmad → become → home
Those are not trivial differences in a film accusing a military of systematic killing.
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Those → accuse → killing
Context is evidence, too
Civilian casualties are not, by themselves, proof that civilians were deliberately targeted.
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civilians → target → themselves
Israel did not enter Gaza in a vacuum.
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Israel → enter → vacuum
On Oct. 7, Hamas-led attackers, other armed groups, and some civilians from Gaza attacked Israeli communities, murdered civilians, burned homes, abducted people, and committed sexual violence.
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attackers → lead → violence
An independent U.N. investigation found that civilians from Gaza directly participated in attacks and abductions at Be’eri, Nir Oz, and the Nova festival.
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civilians → find → Be’eri
Israel knew from the first day that roughly 250 people had been dragged into Gaza, some already wounded.
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some → know → Gaza
The details of their treatment emerged over time, but the danger did not.
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danger → emerge → time
Hostages were held incommunicado and later found or reported in tunnels, residential buildings, and other civilian locations.
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Hostages → hold → tunnels
As I have argued previously in these pages, acknowledging that some Palestinian civilians participated in Oct. 7 does not make every Gazan guilty.
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Gazan → argue → Oct.
But erasing that participation distorts the battlefield Israel confronted.
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Israel → erase → battlefield
What, exactly, was Israel supposed to do?
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Israel → suppose → What
Allow the people who murdered and abducted its citizens to disappear into tunnels and prepare another attack?
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who → allow → attack
Hamas and other armed groups fought from dense civilian terrain while hostages were hidden within that same environment.
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hostages → fight → environment
That does not relieve Israel of its obligations under the laws of war.
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That → relieve → war
It does mean civilian casualties cannot honestly be assessed without considering who created the battlefield and how it was used.
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it → mean → battlefield
Warnings carried a severe military — and human — price
One fact is especially difficult to reconcile with the portrait of a military indifferent to civilian life: Israel repeatedly warned Gazans before major operations and strikes.
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Israel → carry → operations
The Israeli military used phone calls, text messages, leaflets, and evacuation instructions, and established routes intended to move civilians away from combat.
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military → use → combat
Those warnings carried a severe military price: surprise.
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warnings → carry → price
Warn civilians that an attack is coming, and Hamas hears the warning too.
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Hamas → warn → warning
Fighters can move.
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Fighters → move → ?
Commanders can escape.
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Commanders → escape → ?
Weapons can be relocated.
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Weapons → relocate → ?
Defensive positions and ambushes can be prepared.
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positions → prepare → ?
Israeli soldiers may enter an area where the enemy has had time to get ready.
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enemy → enter → time
…and 23 more, not listed.
The Aporia
