Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for a criminal investigation into the 24 anonymous Israeli military and intelligence sources interviewed in NAZA, a documentary accusing the Israeli military of war crimes and the deliberate mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
“I demand that the chief of general staff, the head of the Shin Bet, and the attorney general launch a comprehensive investigation into the participants in the film ‘NAZA’ and prosecute them for serious information security violations, criminal libel, and harm to Israel’s diplomatic and security interests,” Netanyahu wrote in a letter addressed to Israel’s senior security and legal officials, IDF chief of staff Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, Shin Bet director David Zini and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara. The prime minister’s office released the letter on October 11, according to Al Jazeera, which reported on its contents on October 12.
The request does not explicitly name the film’s two directors, the Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, as individual targets of that specific investigation. The directors have, though, faced separate criticism and pressure from members of the Israeli Government.
NAZA investigates alleged Israeli war crimes in Gaza through testimony from 24 Israeli military and intelligence personnel, interviewed anonymously at night on Tel Aviv rooftops, with their faces and voices digitally altered to protect their identities. The 80-minute film, produced by The Guardian, takes its title from a military term for the number of civilian deaths expected in an air strike.
Their accounts allege that Israeli forces systematically authorised strikes expected to kill large numbers of Palestinian civilians.
The documentary examines the use of artificial intelligence and surveillance systems to identify targets, alleging that these technologies were used in ways that contributed to civilian deaths. It also documents allegations of the deliberate destruction of residential neighbourhoods to displace Gaza’s population and prevent residents from returning, as well as the use of starvation as a means of exerting pressure on the civilian population.
The Israeli military has disputed the film’s portrayal of its operations, maintaining that targeting decisions are subject to human review and military procedures. In a 10-page written response published at the start of October, it said it had never planned, approved or carried out a strike expected to kill about 500 civilians, as the film alleges, and that artificial intelligence did not determine whether a person or an object was designated as a target.
NAZA premiered at the Venice International Film Festival on September 10, drawing a record-breaking 24.5-minute standing ovation, the longest recorded at the festival and ahead of the 22 minutes given to Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Voice of Hind Rajab in 2025. It won the Special Jury Prize two days later. It has since become a box-office hit in Italy and attracted international attention, with sold-out screenings prompting an extension of its theatrical run.
Released in Italian cinemas on September 28 by the distributor I Wonder Pictures, it took about €1.1 million in its first days on release, against the €356,000 taken over the same period by the Marvel re-release Avengers Endgame: Encore. The film is due to open in more than 50 territories in the coming weeks and to be made available free on The Guardian’s website in November.
In response, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Israel’s military, backed a rival documentary titled NAZA: The Real Story, which seeks to counter the original film’s allegations through interviews with senior military commanders and intelligence officers who served in Gaza. The 49-minute production argues that Hamas operated among civilians and that Israeli forces followed strict rules of engagement, presenting photographs, footage and military testimonies to support its account. It was directed by Lieutenant Colonel Roi Danino, Hagai Gutman and Ariel Averbuch, and released in September with English subtitles.
Netanyahu’s request identifies three principal grounds for possible prosecution: the alleged disclosure of classified military information, criminal defamation, and damage to Israel’s diplomatic and security interests.
A request for an investigation does not, though, establish criminal wrongdoing, constitute a formal charge or amount to a conviction. Any prosecution would need to establish the relevant facts and legal grounds through the appropriate judicial process.
Abraham and Szor have also faced government criticism over the documentary. Netanyahu had previously supported efforts to revoke their Israeli citizenship, while Israeli culture minister Miki Zohar threatened to seek that revocation under a law allowing it for a “breach of allegiance to the State of Israel”. Zamir said in September that military lawyers were examining possible legal measures concerning the film and those involved in it.
The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the threats on September 15, with its regional director Sara Qudah saying they could not be dismissed as political rhetoric.
Those earlier initiatives should be distinguished from the latest request: the reported demand for a criminal investigation into the film’s participants does not, by itself, establish that either director has been formally charged or specifically named as a target.
The controversy raises questions about the protection of military whistleblowers, the handling of classified information and the legal boundaries of investigative documentary filmmaking. It also highlights the growing dispute over how allegations concerning the conduct of the Gaza war are investigated and publicly scrutinised.
