IDF spokesman asks 'NAZA' directors to screen full film for the military

The Israel Defense Forces spokesman, Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin, has publicly asked the makers of the documentary NAZA to let military representatives watch the completed film, saying the army wants to answer each of the allegations it contains point by point. The invitation was published on the IDF's own channels and reported by Israeli outlets on Monday.

In the same statement the spokesman rejected what has been shown of the film so far. In the English version posted by the IDF, Defrin said the film "has not yet been released in full" and that, judging by the promotional material, it presents "a series of serious and false allegations regarding the IDF and its personnel," some of them "portrayed in a distorted and misleading manner, disconnected from the reality on the ground." He added that the IDF operates in accordance with international law.

What the spokesman actually offered

The wording circulated by Israeli news channels frames the request as an invitation rather than a demand. In the Hebrew text carried by Channel 12's news feed, the spokesman said that in order to allow a substantive, professional and grounded discussion, rather than settling for misleading presentations, he was inviting the filmmakers to let IDF representatives view the full film so the army could address each claim raised in it.

The Ynet news service and the Telegram channel of political correspondent Amit Segal carried the same core line: allow us to see the complete film so we can respond seriously. As of the reports available, there is no indication that the filmmakers have replied.

What NAZA is

According to The Times of Israel, NAZA is an 80-minute documentary by the Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor dealing with Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip that used artificial intelligence and that resulted in civilian deaths. The title is a Hebrew acronym, nezek agavi, meaning collateral damage: the term used in military and legal language for harm to civilians or civilian property caused incidentally by a strike aimed at a military target.

Hebrew-language outlets referred to the film by both forms. Channel 12 initially used the full phrase "nezek agavi" before switching to the acronym in an edited version of its alert, while the IDF statement and Ynet used the acronym NAZA throughout.

The film took a special jury prize at the Venice Film Festival, in its 83rd edition, The Times of Israel reported. A wire photograph distributed with that report shows Abraham and Szor at the closing ceremony photo call in Venice on September 12, 2026.

Why the army is responding at a festival

The IDF Spokesperson's Unit is the branch of the Israeli military responsible for public statements, briefings and contacts with the press, in Israel and abroad. Its head holds the rank of brigadier general. Statements of this kind, issued in both Hebrew and English within minutes of each other and pushed through the army's social media accounts, are the unit's standard method for contesting coverage it considers inaccurate.

The dispute over NAZA is running in public before most viewers have seen the film. The army's position, stated openly in the release, is that it is judging the promotional material rather than the documentary, which is precisely the ground on which it is asking for a screening.

A second, sharper line from Israel Hayom

The daily Israel Hayom described the military's response as a broad rejection of the film's allegations and reported that the IDF said the documentary rests on unverified, anonymous testimonies. That characterisation of the film's sourcing does not appear in the portions of the IDF statement carried by the other outlets reviewed here, which confine themselves to the trailer and the request for a screening.

What the reports do not say

The material available does not include the full text of the IDF statement in either language, and the English version posted on X is truncated mid-sentence in the reports reviewed. It does not say which specific claims in the trailer the army considers falsified, nor what allegations the film makes about the use of artificial intelligence in targeting.

Nothing in the reports indicates whether Abraham and Szor have responded to the invitation, whether a screening has been arranged, or when or where the film will be released in full. No named officer beyond the spokesman is quoted, and no independent account of the film's contents appears in the material.