Netanyahu calls for criminal investigation into soldiers who appeared on NAZA film

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demands of IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, Shin Bet chief David Zini, and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara to launch a criminal investigation into soldiers who appeared anonymously in the film NAZA “for serious information security offenses, criminal defamation, and harming Israel’s diplomatic and security interests.”

The film is based on testimony from 24 unnamed Israeli soldiers who accuse the army of killing numerous civilians in Gaza with the use of AI-powered targeting systems.

“There is concern that those involved in the film committed criminal offenses, including serious offenses involving the exposure of classified information and a breach of information security by a highly sensitive intelligence unit,” Netanyahu says in a letter released by his office.

He says investigators must uncover the identities of the soldiers who appeared in the film.

The Israeli army has “categorically” rejected the accusations contained in the film, expressing doubts about the reliability of the anonymous contributors. The military has said the film “presents a distorted, misleading and disingenuous picture of the IDF’s target planning and striking process” and that its narrative is “based on substantial factual errors stemming from manipulative misrepresentations of reality.”

It also said “the interviewees, described as having served in IDF intelligence roles, usually refer to only limited, initial stages dealing with intelligence, rather than the much broader process of planning and approving strikes,” thus presenting a highly partial picture.