Israel has threatened to strip citizenship from filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor after their Gaza documentary NAZA accused the IDF of using AI to approve strikes with massive civilian casualties, including an alleged plan tolerating up to 500 deaths. The film’s Venice prize, Israel’s treason accusations, and legal threats have ignited a fierce debate over free expression, loyalty and wartime secrecy.
Israel has threatened to revoke the citizenship of the directors of a new documentary about Gaza after they accused the Israeli military of carrying out indiscriminate attacks on civilians in the territory.
Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor have been accused of “treason against the state” over their documentary NAZA, which examines Israel’s use of artificial intelligence in targeting decisions and its impact on civilian casualties.
The 80-minute film claims that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) once approved the killing of up to 500 civilians in a strike intended to assassinate a single Hamas operative. It also alleges that the military used AI systems to plan attacks expected to cause mass casualties.
The film’s title, NAZA, is based on a Hebrew acronym reportedly used by Israeli intelligence services to indicate the expected number of civilian deaths from an airstrike.
The documentary won a special jury prize at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday and received a 25-minute standing ovation.
Israel’s Culture Minister Miki Zohar on Sunday accused the directors of being willing to “harm their homeland in order to receive applause from anti-Semites around the world”.
“I will act immediately to revoke the Israeli citizenship of these despicable creators for treason against the state,” Zohar wrote on X.
On Monday, IDF Chief of Staff Gen Eyal Zamir threatened legal action against the filmmakers and said the military was investigating whether classified material had been used in the documentary and, if so, how it was obtained.
IDF chief spokesman Brig Gen Effie Defrin also challenged the filmmakers to hold a special screening for military officials so they could respond to the allegations in a “substantive manner”.
The IDF has categorically denied the documentary’s claim that it planned and approved a Gaza strike in which 500 civilian deaths were anticipated, describing the allegation as “completely false”.
A promotional clip for the film shows a purported Israeli intelligence soldier being asked about the highest number of civilian deaths ever approved in planning a Gaza strike.
“I don’t know how many were killed, because they never check this,” the purported soldier says. “But there was once an approval for 500.”
The IDF said no “credible claim” supporting the alleged whistleblower’s testimony had been raised during the war.
It also said “national and military strategy” was “clearly beyond the knowledge of junior-level soldiers”.
The Gaza Health Ministry, which operates under Hamas authorities, says more than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory, although its figures do not distinguish between combatants and civilians. Some studies have estimated that the actual death toll is higher.
International journalists have been barred from independently entering Gaza since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack that triggered the war.
Abraham and Szor previously won an Oscar for their documentary No Other Land, which examined violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir also attacked the filmmakers over NAZA.
“You are a disgrace and an embarrassment to the entire people of Israel. Go away!” he wrote on X.
Revocation of Israeli citizenship is technically possible under a 2022 Supreme Court ruling in cases where a citizen has failed to demonstrate “loyalty” to the state. Examples cited by the court included espionage and treason. The grounds were expanded in 2023 to include acts of terrorism.
The controversy comes as Israel’s war in Gaza continues despite a ceasefire announced last October. US President Donald Trump had presented the ceasefire as the beginning of a broader peace process.
However, more than 1,000 Palestinians have since been killed in Israeli airstrikes targeting alleged Hamas activity, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
In July, Trump published a framework reportedly agreed with Hamas under which the group would surrender its weapons in exchange for a phased Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far rejected the proposal.