New Venice documentary pulls back curtain on Israel’s Gaza bombing calculus

A new documentary from Oscar-winning Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, titled NAZA, is set to make its debut at the Venice Film Festival on Thursday. The film promises to delve into the systems behind Israel’s calculated mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, based on testimony from Israeli forces. Produced by British duo Jim Wilson and Jonathan Glazer, known for their Oscar-winning film The Zone of Interest, and Britain’s Guardian newspaper, NAZA takes its title from an Israeli military acronym used to euphemistically indicate the number of civilians expected to be killed in an airstrike.

Since October 2023, Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has resulted in around 73,500 Palestinian deaths and 174,500 injuries, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry. The filmmakers, known for their Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land about Israeli settler violence in the West Bank, were a late addition to the top competition at this year’s festival.

Other recent films about the Gaza conflict, such as Citizen Osama and The Voice of Hind Rajab, have also gained attention and contributed to a shift in public opinion against Israel’s policies in Western countries. Despite Israel’s denial of deliberately targeting civilians, foreign journalists have been prevented from entering and reporting from Gaza since the conflict began, with over 200 Palestinian journalists killed by the end of October 2023.