Gaza-Krieg | Gaza documentary »NAZA«: staging a killing system

A graffiti mural originally branded the two directors of the documentary “NAZA” as “traitors.” Another artist changed it so that it now reads “Heroes.” Foto: IMAGO/Anadolu Agency Die letzte Szene ist ein Tritt in die Magengrube: Nachdem man über eine Stunde den nüchtern vorgetragenen Aussagen israelischer Soldaten und Geheimdienstleute zugehört hat, schubsen Filmaufnahmen die Zuschauer direkt in die alltäglichen Schrecken des Kriegs im Gazastreifen. Zwischen den mittlerweile zur erschreckenden Normalität gewordenen Aufnahmen völlig zerstörter Gebäude und Menschen, die mit Händen zwischen den Trümmern nach Überlebenden graben, taucht ein Mann auf. A father calls for his children, for a daughter and for the older son. Immer wieder ruft er suchend zwischen Betonteilen und Stahl in eine Lücke zwischen eingestürzten Gebäudeteilen hinein, wahrscheinlich der Boden eines Zimmers oder die Decke. Schließlich formuliert er einen Vorwurf, den er verzweifelt dem dunklen Loch anvertraut: »Ich habe dir doch gesagt, du sollst auf deine kleine Schwester achtgeben.«

This very last scene of the film leaves a great feeling of unease and hopelessness and allows the audience to empathize with the desperation of the people in the Gaza Strip. The contrast to the previous 75 minutes of the film could hardly be greater. In the documentary, shot by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, Israeli soldiers and secret service agents have their say; their faces are not visible, only the profile. The film set is special: rooftops of houses in Tel Aviv at night, light only comes from the windows of the illuminated apartments and from the cars driving on the street. Director Yuval Abraham asks questions and the 24 respondents (according to the filmmakers) answer in distorted voices.

A strong indication of irregular warfare is the high number of children killed.

These answers are tough: Using testimonies from those involved, the film documents the approach of the Israeli army in the war in the Gaza Strip, more precisely the cold-bloodedness with which a large number of uninvolved people, women, children, entire families, were deliberately dragged to their deaths in order to kill this or that suspected Hamas commander or fighter. The so-called collateral damage, expressed with the acronym “NAZA” (Hebrew: “Nezek Agavi”), refers to the innocent victims and, according to the soldiers, works like a currency: How many NAZA do we accept to hit this or that? In the film, numbers are mentioned: 20, 30, 100 or, according to a soldier in the film, even 500: a conscious calculation to kill a target identified by the Israeli army, i.e. a Hamas fighter.

"Once there was authorization to kill 500 people in an attack on a human target," said the man. “I can click on a house and see how many people will be damaged if I bomb it.” He takes a piece of paper and sketches. "You can see it like this: Apartment 6, 5th floor, Ahmad and his family will die."

The anonymous military and secret service agents describe a system with which the targets were identified for shooting - with the help of artificial intelligence (AI), intercepted telephone conversations and the creation of profiles of suspected Hamas fighters. The preparatory work for the film's research results had already been carried out in 2024, when the Israeli investigative magazine "+972" published a long report on the use of AI in the Gaza war, the author: filmmaker Yuval Abraham. He revealed that the Israeli army had developed an AI-based program called “Lavender” that directed the attacks in the Gaza Strip, consciously taking into account a high number of bystanders being killed, the “collateral damage.” The “nd” documented this research at the time.

Further research, for example by the British daily newspaper "The Guardian", which co-produced "NAZA", completed the picture of a mechanized warfare that accepts a high number of deaths without taking into account uninvolved civilians or family members. No one will be able to deny that the Israeli army committed numerous war crimes in the Gaza war. A strong indication of irregular warfare, to use a harmless adjective, is the high number of children killed: Of the at least 74,000 people killed on the Palestinian side - the number of unreported cases is likely to be far higher if you include the victims buried under the rubble - almost 22,000 (30 percent) are children.

Scene from the film »NAZA« Photo: Venice Biennale The main dispute is over the number of suspected Hamas militia members killed. Israel speaks of 22,000, as supposed proof that many of those killed were legitimate targets. However, there are no reliable figures for this.

The fact that the Israeli side immediately denies the film any credibility, intimidates the filmmakers by calling them "traitors to the fatherland" and threatening them with the revocation of their Israeli citizenship, is probably not surprising when you look at the same lines of argument that the Israeli army uses over and over again to transfigure every massacre of civilians in the Gaza Strip as "legitimate": Hamas shields, terrorists, etc. etc.

But even in Germany, skepticism seems to predominate because what should not be should not be allowed to be. Not every statement made by the anonymously interviewed soldiers may be correct in every detail, and there may also be errors in the presentation of the course of an operation, but what is convincing is the presentation of the systematics of a military machine that uses AI and uses bombs and drones to find and kill Hamas fighters with a broad brush, regardless of losses.

Everyone can form their own opinion about the motives for such a reckless approach. Der Film selbst lässt nicht klar erkennen, was die Motive der Soldatinnen und Soldaten sind, so offen, wenn auch anonym, über ihre Taten, kriminelle Akte, zu sprechen. Ist es Reue? The need to want to share your own, perhaps stressful, experiences with someone? Or perhaps to boast about one's own deeds, the power to decide over life and death? Sie sind die klassischen Schreibtischtäter, die man angesichts ihrer hochtechnologischen Arbeitsmittel wohl besser Monitor-Mörder nennen sollte und den Krieg am Laufen halten. As Yuval Abraham said at a press conference: "We are looking at the killing system."

This article cost you nothing. We do: for research, printing and technology. We saved on office rent as well as printing and distribution. And we gave up salary. Nevertheless, the calculation doesn't work without you. We need 300,000 euros by the end of the year. You pay what you can, in return we keep writing.

No paywall, no small print, just one goal: that nd stays.