Israeli Film on Gaza War Sparks National Outrage and Debate

A new Israeli documentary titled "Nez"A" (Accidental Damage), which recently won a special jury prize at the Venice Film Festival and received a lengthy standing ovation, has ignited a fierce controversy within Israel. The film, produced by The Guardian, features 24 anonymous testimonies from former Israeli soldiers and officers detailing their experiences in Gaza and other territories following the October 7th Hamas attacks. The interviews are filmed in darkness on Tel Aviv rooftops, with the city lights in the background.

The former soldiers describe their initial anger and desire for revenge, followed by discussions on bombing decisions and the concept of "Nez"A," which refers to collateral damage and harm to non-combatants. Some testimonies suggest that initial open-fire orders allowed for a significant number of civilian casualties, with one interviewee claiming up to 500 non-combatants could be approved casualties in some instances, and another stating, "There is no difference between babies, children, and adults, everyone is marked as Nez"A."

One interviewee discusses the use of an AI system called "Lavender," reportedly used to identify Hamas operatives via phone data, which could predict the number of civilian casualties in a building before an attack. Another testimony mentions a system that scanned a child's phone for specific words to aid in identifying targets. The film juxtaposes these accounts with scenes of everyday life in Tel Aviv, such as people dining and practicing yoga, to highlight what the filmmakers intended as a perceived indifference to Palestinian lives.

Some interviewees in the film also grapple with defining their actions, with one comparing his participation to the atrocities committed by Nazis during the Holocaust. The film's narrative has drawn sharp criticism from Israeli officials. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the film "unbearable," and Culture Minister Miki Zohar threatened to revoke the creators' citizenship.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) issued a strong denial, refuting the claim that an attack with an expected 500 civilian casualties was ever approved or planned. The IDF emphasized that technological systems do not make attack decisions independently, with all decisions made by humans in accordance with international law. The military also questioned the credibility of the anonymous testimonies, stating that some dealt with matters outside the interviewees' knowledge or roles, and pointed out the film's omission of the October 7th Hamas massacre as a significant gap in its narrative.