{"id":623215,"date":"2026-09-13T08:08:22","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T08:08:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/623215\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T08:08:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T08:08:22","slug":"israeli-made-gaza-documentary-wins-at-venice-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/623215\/","title":{"rendered":"Israeli-made Gaza documentary wins at Venice festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new documentary by two Israeli directors that accuses Israel of AI-assisted killing of civilians in Gaza won the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

NAZA, by Oscar-winning Israeli directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor (No Other Land), 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.<\/p>\n

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

“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 dehumanisation of Palestinians,” he told the audience.<\/p>\n

The Special Jury Prize is given out each year by the jury to recognise an outstanding work, but it is below the Golden and Silver Lions in order of merit.<\/p>\n

Abraham and Szor used conversations with 24 different Israeli military or intelligence whistleblowers who spoke on condition that their identities be protected.<\/p>\n

\"Yuval
\nDirector Yuval Abraham said it was “really, really, especially important for us that Israelis watch this film”<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

NAZA 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.”<\/p>\n

Director Abraham said it was “really, really, especially important for us that Israelis watch this film”.<\/p>\n

“It’s our country that is doing these crimes,” he said.<\/p>\n

Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has left around 73,500 Palestinians dead and 174,500 wounded since October 2023, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures the United Nations deems reliable.<\/p>\n

The bombing of Gaza followed an attack on Israel by Hamas militants on 7 October, 2023 that resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, according to an AFP calculation based on official figures.<\/p>\n

The Israeli military has criticised the use of anonymous testimonies in the film, saying on Friday the identities of the whistleblowers “cannot be verified”.<\/p>\n

Source: AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new documentary by two Israeli directors that accuses Israel of AI-assisted killing of civilians in Gaza won…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":623216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[93,61,60,270],"class_list":["post-623215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=623215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/623216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=623215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=623215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=623215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}