By Anam Alam

 

ABU DHABI, 27 Sept. - (ANA) - Award-winning documentary NAZA will stream online for free following its worldwide release in November, giving audiences around the world access to the film about Israel's genocidal war on Gaza.

 

NAZA, directed by Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, will be released in cinemas in more than 50 countries before streaming on the website of British newspaper The Guardian in November.

 

Announcing the decision on X on Thursday, Abraham said the documentary would be made available for free because of its "interest and public importance".

 

"…I and Rachel decided together with The Guardian that the film NAZA would be accessible online for free, without any time limit, so that every person can watch it and the soldiers' testimonies," Abraham wrote on X.

 

The Guardian said the film would be streamed "as part of the news organisation's commitment to the dissemination of independent journalism".

 

The film, shot on the rooftops of Tel Aviv, centres on Israel's use of AI in its genocidal war on Gaza, featuring testimony from 24 members of the Israeli military and intelligence services who spoke on condition of anonymity.

 

Its title comes from an Israeli military term used to refer to the number of civilians expected to be killed in an airstrike.

 

The soldiers and intelligence personnel interviewed describe systems used to identify targets in Gaza and how strikes were approved despite the anticipated deaths of civilians, including children.

 

The documentary received a record-breaking 25-minute standing ovation at its premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September and went on to win the Special Jury Prize.

 

But the film's reception in Israel was markedly different, triggering a fierce campaign against Abraham and Szor from senior Israeli politicians, military figures and far-right activists.

 

Much of the backlash centred on the film's use of testimony from serving and former Israeli military and intelligence personnel to expose the systems behind attacks that have killed Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

 

Israeli officials accused the filmmakers of portraying Israeli soldiers as war criminals, while Culture Minister Miki Zohar accused them of "treason against the state". Israeli military chief Eyal Zamir threatened to use "every tool at our disposal" against it.

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to pass legislation that would allow authorities to strip citizenship from Israelis who "smear" soldiers or "defame" the state.

 

The campaign soon extended beyond the filmmakers themselves to their families.

 

Dozens of far-right activists gathered outside the homes of the directors' families, including the home of Szor's parents, after messages circulated calling on activists to demonstrate there.

 

Some messages included explicit calls for violence, while one protester demanded the "death penalty for traitors" and called for the homes of the filmmakers' families to be demolished.

 

The threats prompted expressions of solidarity from Israeli human rights groups and members of the international film industry, who condemned the campaign against the directors and called for their safety and freedom of expression to be protected.

 

In 2025, Abraham and Szor won the Oscar for Best Documentary for No Other Land, along with their two Palestinian co-directors, Basel Adra and Hamdan Ballal.

 

That film, which documented Israeli settler violence and the displacement of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, also generated controversy in Israel.

 

Following the Oscar win, Ballal was brutally attacked by Israeli settlers.   - (ANA) - 

 

AB/ANA/27 September 2026  - - -