Israelis’ film alleging AI-assisted killing of Gaza civilians wins Venice jury prize

VENICE, Italy — A new documentary about Israel’s alleged AI-assisted killing of civilians in the Gaza Strip by two Israeli directors won a special jury prize at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday.

“NAZA,” by Oscar-winning Israeli directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, had been tipped by some critics for the top Golden Lion prize for best film after a record-breaking 25-minute ovation at its premiere on Thursday.

Receiving the award, Abraham said that in the 10 days since the festival began, “Israel killed six Palestinian children in Gaza at least.”

“The Israeli intelligence officers we spoke with talked to us how this mass killing is systemic: not by accident, but by design, actions of murder and policies that are based on the total dehumanization of Palestinians,” he told the audience.

The special jury prize is given out each year by the jury to recognize an outstanding work, but it is below the Golden and Silver Lions in the pecking order.

Abraham and Szor used conversations with 24 different Israeli military or intelligence whistleblowers who spoke on condition that their identities be protected.

Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor look drawn and solemn amid strong applause for Golden Lion Contender ‘NAZA’ exposing Israeli targeting of civilians in Gaza #VeniceFilmFestival pic.twitter.com/hqyzoZhwHM

— Deadline (@DEADLINE) September 10, 2026

The 80-minute film left many audience members stunned, with interviewees describing how they felt like they worked in a killing “factory” or a lethal video game while using Israel’s AI-powered targeting systems to bombard Gaza.

It was described as an “urgent, gut-punch” by film magazine Screen, while The Hollywood Reporter said it inspired “outrage… indignity as well. Most certainly disgust, on a profound level, for the current Israeli regime.”

The film was the only documentary in Venice’s main competition.

Abraham said it was “really, really, especially important for us that Israelis watch this film.”

“It’s our country that is doing these crimes,” he said.

The Gaza war, which was sparked by the Hamas-led October 2023 terror onslaught against Israel, has killed over 73,500 people in Gaza, including more than 1,330 since the October 2025 ceasefire, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in the enclave, although the toll does not differentiate between combatants and civilians. The Israeli military believes that Hamas’s overall toll is largely accurate, with IDF officials estimating that two to three civilians were killed for every dead terror operative.

The Israel Defense Forces said Friday it “categorically rejects” allegations made in the new documentary.

The military criticized the use of anonymous testimonies in the film, saying the identities of the whistleblowers “cannot be verified.”

The IDF also said decisions on the selection and approval of strikes were made “by human personnel only… and not by artificial intelligence.”

Asked by a journalist following the awards ceremony about the military’s reaction, Abraham responded that “it seems like an attempt to not face reality.”

Abraham defended the film’s reporting, done in partnership with Britain’s The Guardian newspaper, calling it “rigorous” and its findings reported by other mainstream journalists as well.

He asserted that the filmmakers had received threats but did not go into more detail.

Abraham and Szor were also part of the team behind the 2024 documentary “No Other Land,” which chronicled Israel’s demolitions in the Palestinian West Bank village of Masafer Yatta and won an Academy Award for best documentary feature.

During his 2024 acceptance speech, Abraham spoke of the “atrocious destruction of Gaza and its people, which must end,” as well as “the Israeli hostages, brutally taken in the crime of October 7, which must be freed.”