Gaza documentary NAZA to debut at Venice

“NAZA”, a documentary by Oscar-winning Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor about civilian deaths in Gaza, is set to premiere at the Venice Film Festival on Thursday.

The filmmakers said when they announced the film in August that it was based on testimony from Israeli forces and would reveal “the systems behind Israel's calculated mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza”. The claim is disputed by Israel, which has consistently denied deliberately targeting civilians and says Hamas hides among Gaza's population.

The film was a late addition to Venice's top competition. It was produced by Jim Wilson and Jonathan Glazer, who worked on “The Zone of Interest”, as well as Britain's Guardian newspaper.

The Guardian said the title comes from an Israeli military acronym used by Israeli intelligence to indicate the number of civilians expected to be killed in an airstrike.

Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry says Israel's bombardment of Gaza has killed about 73,500 Palestinians and injured 174,500 since October 2023.

Abraham and Szor previously worked on “No Other Land”, about Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank, which won the Oscar for best documentary in 2025. Venice organisers have selected several films about the Gaza conflict for this year's programme.