‘Naza’ has Netanyahu on edge on the eve of the Israeli elections

He dismisses it as a collection of “lies”, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is obsessed with Naza, the documentary (in Italian cinemas until tomorrow) by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, two of the directors from the collective that won the Oscar for No Other Land in 2025. The film reveals the details of the system underpinning the mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Winner of the Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival, Naza has had a huge media impact and will be available free of charge online (probably from November) “as part of the news organisation’s commitment to promoting independent journalism” on the website of *The Guardian*, which co-produced it alongside Jonathan Glazer (*The Zone of Interest*).

It will be shown on Rai Storia from 10 October. Without naming him, Netanyahu – concerned about the 27 October elections in Israel – rejected the accusations of genocide in Gaza in the half-empty UN chamber, calling them ‘the biggest lie of the century’ and stating that the Israeli army ‘does more than anyone else to avoid civilian casualties’. Immediately following the screening in Venice, Netanyahu had already described the film as “intolerable”, accusing the directors of inciting anti-Semitism and of smearing the state in order to gain international support. The Minister for Culture, Miki Zohar, described it as an act of “treason” and called for the immediate revocation of the two directors’ Israeli citizenship. Zohar and the head of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), Eyal Zamir, have also launched an internal IDF investigation to look into the alleged unauthorised disclosure of classified material and the use of anonymous sources.

Naza is the code name used by the Israeli secret services to refer to collateral damage – that is, the civilian casualties in Gaza resulting from the Israeli army’s bombardments aimed at destroying Hamas. The Naza, which indiscriminately include children, women and the elderly, can number as many as several hundred, and the operations may ultimately fail to strike even a single member of Hamas. The Naza are ‘triggered’ by a system that monitors telephones using an algorithm and AI: the killing of civilians occurs when Hamas members, whose phones are under surveillance, enter homes. The documentary’s significance lies in confirming that this system of surveillance and control predated the horrific massacre of 7 October, in which Hamas killed over 1,200 Israelis, including civilians and military personnel. There are 24 witnesses, interviewed on the rooftops of Tel Aviv, where it is difficult to intercept conversations: Mossad agents or members of the army, of whom only a black silhouette is visible and whose image and voice have been altered so as not to reveal their identity. In the film, made in a very classic documentary style, ‘those speaking are driven by different motivations: some feel guilty, others recount the facts with a sort of indifference and show no remorse. Others are even proud of the results achieved. ‘The aim was to describe this system of death and genocide. The motivations are a secondary consideration,’ explained Abraham.

Now showing in Italian cinemas is PALESTINA 36 – When It All Began by Annemarie Jacir, set during the British Mandate in Palestine. And from tomorrow, in over a hundred Italian cinemas, The Bibi Files will be screening – a documentary by the American director Alexis Bloom, which was censored in Israel and is based on leaked footage of police interviews with Benjamin Netanyahu as part of an investigation into corruption, fraud and breach of trust.