NAZA review – Israeli intelligence officers cast chilling light on civilian deaths — SkimNews
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- NAZA, directed by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor of 'No Other Land' and executive produced by Jonathan Glazer, features anonymous Israeli intelligence officers who allege the military has subcontracted attack reconnaissance to AI systems that analyze phone call patterns of known Hamas operatives and strike phones exhibiting similar patterns, often in apartments already documented by the state.
- The film documents a 15% permitted 'error' rate for this targeting system and a projected 'Naza' number — military shorthand for expected civilian collateral damage per strike — with one respondent citing an expected rate of 20 civilian deaths per action, described by the reviewer as 'elastic to say the least.'
- Israeli officers in the film also describe logistics for 'cleansing' northern Gaza and sniper attacks on desperate civilians crossing into militarized zones in search of food.
- An intelligence unit allegedly personally loyal to PM Benjamin Netanyahu is described as running covert dirty-tricks operations to undermine international human rights bodies critical of Israel's political leadership.
- The interviewees reject the concept of 'human shields,' contending instead that Gaza's civilians are collectively deemed complicit in the October 7 attack, allowing whole buildings to be wiped out in single strikes.
- The Guardian review notes the film is produced under the Guardian's auspices but identifies a structural flaw: necessary anonymity, while understandable for safety, lessens the impact as testimony.
Why it matters: This documentary provides rare insider testimony from within Israeli intelligence describing how Gaza strikes are operationally rationalized — including AI-driven targeting with a stated 15% civilian error rate and pre-calculated casualty projections per action. With its release under Guardian production auspices and direction by Oscar-winning filmmakers, the film is positioned to shape Western public understanding of the decision-making framework behind documented civilian deaths in Gaza.
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