NAZA co-director accuses Israeli media of ignoring civilian deaths in Gaza
In Israel, Yuval Abraham, co-director of the documentary film NAZA, accused local media of failing to cover the deaths of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip during the war between Israel and Hamas. He said this in an interview with Israel’s Channel 13, The Jerusalem Post reports.
Dispute over anonymous sources
Journalist Raviv Drucker asked Abraham why the filmmakers had not disclosed the identities of the sources in the film. According to him, without names, information about units, dates, locations of events and information about those affected, it is impossible either to verify or refute the serious testimony presented in the film.
Abraham replied that the documentary had been made in cooperation with The Guardian, and that the publication’s editors had access to the primary materials. He also said that the identities of the interviewees and the cases they described had been verified.
The co-director asked why Channel 13 or other Israeli media had not broadcast the claims of 24 interviewees presented in the film as officers of the Israel Defense Forces Intelligence Corps. Abraham said that, to his knowledge, Israeli television investigative programs had not featured reports on rules of engagement in Gaza, policy on collateral damage, and harm to Palestinian civilians in the Strip.
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Israel Defense Forces denial
NAZA is an Israel Defense Forces abbreviation meaning “collateral damage.” The film claims that the military used artificial intelligence to plan or approve strikes that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of civilians in Gaza. The Israel Defense Forces rejected these claims.
In one promotional clip for the film, an interviewee presented as an Intelligence Corps serviceman said that a strike had once been approved in which up to 500 civilian deaths were anticipated. In response, the Israel Defense Forces press service called this information “completely false” and said it had not planned, approved or carried out strikes with an anticipated death toll of 500 civilians or a number close to that.
The military also said that decisions on selecting and approving strikes are made by people in accordance with military guidelines, not artificial intelligence. The film NAZA has not yet been publicly available in Israel.
