NAZA, a documentary produced by the British newspaper The Guardian and directed by the Israeli journalists Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, received a 25-minute standing ovation at its world premiere on Thursday at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival. Italian media said the response on Venice's Lido was the longest in the festival's history.
The film centres on testimony from people who served in the Israeli military. It examines surveillance, targeting and the remote killing of Palestinians. NAZA alleges that mass civilian deaths were routinely built into Israeli targeting decisions in Gaza, an allegation rejected by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the military.
Its reception in Venice has collided with an increasingly charged political response in Israel before the October 27 election. Public opinion polls indicate that Netanyahu's right-wing coalition could lose. The prime minister has cited the film while promising measures aimed at those he says defame Israeli soldiers.
On Wednesday, Netanyahu vowed to pass a law that would revoke the citizenship of anyone who defames Israel's soldiers. He also pledged to advance a second bill that would increase by 20 times the statutory damages available in defamation cases. “We will hit them both in their pockets and in their citizenship, as their place is not with us,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu cited three incidents in proposing the bills: NAZA; 2025 remarks by the left-wing former general and politician Yair Golan that a sane country does not kill children as a hobby; and a 2024 leak by a military legal officer of a video showing soldiers abusing a Gaza detainee.
On Tuesday, Netanyahu accused some election rivals of failing to take a sufficiently tough position on the documentary. He said this made them unfit for office.
The military is examining potential legal action against people involved in NAZA. It is unclear whether either of the bills pledged by Netanyahu has moved beyond his public commitment on Wednesday.
The directors have also faced hostility. On September 15, 2026, graffiti showing Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor alongside the word traitors in Hebrew appeared on a wall in Ashdod, southern Israel. The identities of those responsible are unknown.
The Venice response put the film alongside a recent festival benchmark. Italian media reported that NAZA's 25-minute ovation exceeded the 24-minute ovation given to The Voice of Hind Rajab at its world premiere at the festival last year.
The film's prominence has given Netanyahu a clear campaign issue as the election approaches. Its directors are Israeli, while its account of military conduct in Gaza rests on testimony from former personnel. The central allegation remains strongly disputed by the prime minister and the military, even as the documentary's makers face the prospect of legal action and intensified public attacks at home.
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