Testimony from 24 Israeli military insiders ​on the secret ​systems used in ​the war on Gaza​ has been revealed in a new documentary film about the mass killing of Palestinian civilians. NAZA, a film from the Oscar-winning Israeli directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, was shown at the Venice international film festival on Thursday as the only documentary competing for its prestigious Golden Lion award. The film’s title comes from an Israeli military acronym used euphemistically to refer to civilians expected to be killed in a military attack. Produced by the Guardian, it features extensive testimony from Israeli intelligence officers and soldiers involved in the surveillance and remote killing of Palestinian civilians. Interviews were filmed at night on rooftops in Tel Aviv, on the condition of anonymity because of the risks involved in speaking publicly about Israel’s war activities. The appearance and voices of participants in the film were digitally altered to disguise their identities. The interviewees detail the secret methods used by the Israeli military in Gaza, including AI-based systems built to identify large numbers of potential low-ranking Hamas targets, who were then bombed in their homes at night, in the knowledge attacks would also kill their families. The Israeli military hacked into phones to identify the location of such targets, and covertly listened into conversations with their wives and children moments before they were all killed. The film also features first-person accounts about the destruction of neighbourhoods where the Israeli military estimated that up to 25% of residents were still sheltering in their homes, the systematic burning of civilian homes, and the killing of civilians at a food distribution site. Several interviewees worked in a secret intelligence unit that reports directly to the office of Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu; one said their mission was to “thwart peace”. “We made this film out of a sense of obligation to use our position as Israeli film-makers and journalists to examine the systems behind the mass killing of Palestinian civilians for which our country is responsible,” Abraham and Szor said in their directors’ statement.

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[–] 67 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (10 children)

including AI-based systems built to identify large numbers of potential low-ranking Hamas targets, who were then bombed in their homes at night

The guardian finally talking about something 972 mag covered back in January 2025.

It's not secret! It's Google and Microsoft and many other AI companies testing their AI systems on Gaza. It's a huge part of the incentives of the genocide. Write the companies fucking names you fucking cowards.

https://www.972mag.com/microsoft-azure-openai-israeli-army-cloud/

I was fired from Microsoft in July speaking out against these systems. Not personally in the video. But we've know this shit with constant whistleblowers speaking out since 2024. It's not true until an Israeli soldier feels sad about it later I guess.

https://youtu.be/9jY5rbSfh_Y

The fact that Microsoft and Google are not mentioned in this article is doing the work to wash the blood off the hands of American corporations. It's not a fucking secret system. We know exactly what it is and we know exactly who profited from the mass murder of children. Fuck you.

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  • [–] 12 points 2 months ago (4 children)

    JFC.

    What are the determinates for someone being hamas? This is so so wrong

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  • [–] 5 points 2 months ago

    Based on the fact they leveled the entire city and murdered tens of thousands of children, I'm guessing anyone who had a phone in the vicinity of another "hamas" phone at any point in time (e.g. the entire population).

    When you are a fascist genocidal ethnostate, everyone is the enemy. Even the babies.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago

    Hamas is a militant group but is also the governing entity of Gaza. They are treated the same through Western media with no distinction between civilians or militants. It would be like labeling American firefighters as the same as the American pilots that bombed the girls school in Iran.

    And it's even worse than just that. They specifically attack "Hamas members" in their homes. They don't even hide the reasons why. They openly will say it is to "incentivize" others to not "be Hamas" by targeting their family.

    As someone that has worked at Microsoft and heard from first hand the people that had access to these systems I can say that this is not at all a "failure of AI". That is mostly an excuse for what is actually being done.

    The AI portions of these systems are primarily about dealing with large amounts of data collection to form a narrative an reasoning that would otherwise have no basis in reality. Gaza, even before the Palestinian Genocide, had the most surveillance on the planet. The AI is primarily used to disconnect humans from the doubt in the decisions they are making. The AI doesn't have to function for accuracy when it's goal is not accuracy. The goal is to ensure those carrying out the strikes believe in its accuracy. That their is enough for them to believe they are "making the best hard decision". It is the only way to ensure a state like Israel maintains it genocidal goals.

    The comparison of this would be the industrialization of murder that was the Holocaust. The Nazis did not change to gas chambers as a means of "efficiency". The mass slaughter of innocent people was creating doubt and unrest in those carrying out the slaughter. You can believe the worst white supremacist hate and enjoy all the propaganda that justifies your actions. But, at a certain point, that is no longer enough. The direct participantion in mass suffering will break anyone. Even if it's not in understanding their actions as wrong. But making them incapable of being functional enough to continue acting as a tool for mass murder.

    The Israeli soldier that committed suicide after describing their bulldozing over dead bodies for months. That type of thing. But, if that direct level of participation is abstracted by "this very smart system says these deaths are justified" and the soldier is only pressing a button on an Xbox controller. Well, you've manufactured a society that is capable of a genocide. And proudly so.

    This type of maintenance on the Israeli population itself is something that is rarely talked about. But, I think it can be seen as a "Israelis are actually victims". So, I want to be clear that's not what I'm trying to say. But, I am interested in understanding how a society and a state can reach such a level of hubris, such unapologetic rejoice in their crimes; so we can stop it.

    I don't think it's helpful to say "they are just evil". It is true. The Nazis were fucking evil. The IDF are fucking evil. But, how does that occur and become sustainable? I think people stop and just attribute it to a flaw in some inherent human trait of a people. Which, ironically, is often the justification used by those commiting genocide themselves.

    The only way to recover from and prevent these things is to understand the structures that maintain them in the first place. And, that, is what AI is primarily being used for in warfare and in genocide. It is a means of maintaining it. It's why when Microsoft says it's "cutoff Israel from xyz" they are doing this to save face in the public eye. To attempt to separate their image from the direct systems that press the button. But, are still maintaining the structures that allow, justify, and maintain the structures that allow that button to exist and keep the IDF soldier pressing it.

    Sorry, rant. But I never imagined in my college years working on programming problems that I'd end up at a company so connected to and so at fault for carrying out the mass slaughter of innocents halfway around the world. It does something to you.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 months ago

    Oh yeah it's not a secret I've read about it in numerous publications. You can bet they are using it as a testing ground for all the most dystopian military tech you can imagine, including autokillbots.

    Which are forbidden under an international agreement but that means nothing now. Israel claims to keep a human in the loop to make the final decision, for whatever that is worth, which is nothing.

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  • [+] -10 points 2 months ago (2 children)
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    [–] 8 points 2 months ago (12 children)

    This will diminish the Holocaust. Imagine this film being shown with Schlindler's List. People will conclude that the Israelis are no different than the Nazis.

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  • [–] 14 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    People will conclude that the Israelis are no different than the Nazis.

    If you search here in this very community you'll find opinion polls in Israel in which the majority of their population basically condone the ongoing genocide. So yes, they're no different.

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  • [–] -4 points 2 months ago (7 children)

    Wait till you find out about the Grand Mufti of Palestine

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  • [–] 5 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    LoL! Are you really repeating the tired hasbara that Netanyahu used to completely try and rewrite history to blame the Holocaust on Palestinians?

    https://theconversation.com/netanyahus-narrative-how-the-israeli-pm-is-rewriting-history-to-suit-himself-49759

    As for the Holocaust revisionism itself, sadly, it is not. The incoming Israeli ambassador to the UK, Mark Regev, referred reporters inquiring about Netanyahu’s pronouncements concerning the mufti to a 1993 book that details the mufti’s relations with the Third Reich. Its author is Benjamin Netanyahu.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    You cannot attribute one leader's beliefs and actions to an entire population.

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  • [–] -1 points 1 month ago (2 children)
  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago (1 child)

    Not every Israeli has the same beliefs either. Some of them are appalled by their country's actions

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  • [–] -2 points 1 month ago

    Literally South Africa’s entire case for “Gaza genocide” before the ICJ is predicated on the statements of the most right-wing Israeli leaders - often in positions that have no authority over the IDF - speak for their army and the intent of their operation to disarm Hamas and retrieve hostages.

    But of course when you explore the statements of Palestinian leaders, you get “well they don’t speak for every Palestinian.”

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago

    IBM was essential to a more efficient Holocaust for the nazis.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago*

    So it finally broke. Isreal is murdering people because a black box told them to. This is not only a war crime, it is a crime against humanity.

    Israel crossed the line and it is ridiculous they will face no consequences for this ham fisted massacre.

    I also suspect the current US regime has done this as well.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago*

    Palantir isnt exactly secret, they have been using that, but it isnt reported on the MSM for reason. israel has been using palantir for the last 10+years.

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  • 6 comments in c/news@lemmy.world view that post
    [–] 7 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    I had to come back to the thread because I didn't post the joke I wanted to because It hought it would be in poor tste, but...... it's not even a joke. Did nobody point out the irony in naming it NAZA so close to Nazi? ........fucking irony

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  • [–] 5 points 2 months ago

    The film’s title comes from an Israeli military acronym used euphemistically to refer to civilians expected to be killed in a military attack.

    It means collateral damage. It's what the Nazi IDF openly refers to civilians as.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 months ago (2 children)
  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago

    Not quite so secret anymore

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