While the Gaza documentary “NAZA”, which recently won the special jury prize at the Venice Film Festival, has gained international visibility and media attention, a counter-project titled “NAZA: The Real Story” has also emerged online.
Filmed on the rooftops of Tel Aviv at night and investigating the killings of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, the original 80-minute documentary features revealing interviews with 24 Israeli military intelligence officers and soldiers. “NAZA”, a term used throughout the documentary, is an abbreviation for collateral damage, used to indicate the number of civilians Israeli intelligence expects to be killed in an airstrike.
Directed by Israeli directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, two of the four co-directors of 2025’s Oscar-winning film “No Other Land,” “NAZA” earned a 24.5-minute ovation at Venice and was also well received when it debuted in North America at the recent New York Film Festival. The film, which is currently showing in cinemas in Europe and the US, will be made available for free streaming on The Guardian website in late November.
Now it’s countered with “NAZA: The Real Story,” a quickly produced 49-minute rebuttal shot in a style that mimics the original. According to the information on the website, the producer of the film is Lieutenant Colonel Roi Danino, who is the political candidate of the right-wing Israel First Party led by Sharren Haskel in the elections to be held in Israel on October 27; Ariel Averbuch, a reserve major in the Israel Defense Forces, patent attorney, and ultranationalist influencer; and content editor Hagai Gutman.
The documentary was rebroadcast on
According to the website “NAZA: The Real Story,” the rebuttal document, similar to the original, describes the war in Gaza as “told through the testimonies of participating IDF officers.”
“Through first-hand accounts, this documentary examines conflict in civilian areas, the challenges of identifying threats, and the decisions made on the battlefield,” reads the blurb on the rebuttal’s home page. “Their testimonies offer a closer look at the conditions they faced, the dilemmas they faced, and how they described the course of the war.”
“NAZA: The Real Story”, according to its website, “Hamas fought from inside civilian areas: fighters in civilian clothes, weapons in homes, schools, mosques and hospitals, tunnel shafts inside houses. And that’s why the IDF conducted its operations under strict rules about opening fire. These are the film’s claims made by the people who were there.”
The website “NAZA: The Real Story” claims that more than 20 million viewers have watched the documentary, which was released online this weekend at the time of publication.
The Israel Defense Forces criticized “NAZA” in a statement last week, calling it “manipulative,” “misleading” and “based on significant factual errors.”
“With the original ‘NAZA’ film gaining heavy distribution and visibility in Europe and the United States, the creators of this rebuttal are using digital influencers and international grassroots networks to deliver their images directly to global policymakers and journalists,” wrote the right-wing Jerusalem Post newspaper.
“For the production team, the ongoing conflict is no longer just a debate over military strategy, but a decisive, high-stakes battle over who will dictate the historical record to the international community.”
There was no comment on “NAZA: The Real Story” from Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor and The Guardian, who produced “NAZA” along with James Wilson (JW Films) and executive producer Jonathan Glazer.