NAZA film-makers defend Gaza documentary at New York premiere

Oscar-winning film-makers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor defended the findings of their documentary NAZA at its North American premiere in New York on Saturday, amid protests in Israel and escalating threats from Israeli officials to strip them of their citizenship.

The film, directed by Abraham and Szor and produced by the Guardian, investigates what its makers describe as Israel's systemic mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza. It features testimony from 24 anonymized Israeli soldiers and intelligence officers who took part in the surveillance and remote killing of Palestinian civilians. These witnesses describe the AI-powered systems used to select targets.

The title carries its own indictment. "NAZA" is an acronym used euphemistically by Israeli intelligence to indicate how many civilians it expects to die in an airstrike. Those strikes are often conducted at night against private homes, killing many family members — including children — at once.

The New York premiere follows an extreme reaction to the film in Israel and abroad. Critics have acclaimed the documentary since its release, and it received ovations at Venice, but Israeli officials have responded with death threats and moves toward revoking the directors' citizenship.

Abraham and Szor stood by their reporting at the premiere, refusing to soften the film's central claims despite the pressure. The 24 anonymized testimonies form the evidentiary core of the project, offering an insider account of the surveillance apparatus and remote-killing systems described in the film.

The directors' willingness to premiere the film in North America signals that the confrontation over its findings will continue on a wider stage, with the threats against its makers now part of the story the film tells.