The controversial NAZA documentary that alleges Israel’s military operations have resulted in systematic mass civilian casualties, which debuted at the Venice Film Festival earlier this month, will be released online for free, one of the film’s directors announced on Thursday.
NAZA director Yuval Abraham announced in a post on X/Twitter that he, the film’s other director Rachel Szor, and producer The Guardian had decided to release the film for free due to “the interest and public importance,” and that it would be released in November.
Abraham also said that they had offered Israeli cinemas the chance to screen the documentary at no cost.
בגלל העניין והחשיבות הציבורית אני ורחלי החלטנו ביחד עם הגרדיאן שהסרט נז״א יהיה נגיש באינטרנט בחינם, ללא הגבלת זמן, כדי שכל אדם יוכל לצפות בו ובעדויות החיילים. זה יקרה בעוד כמה שבועות, בנובמבר, במועד הכי מוקדם שהצלחנו לקבוע. עד אז פנינו לבתי קולנוע בישראל והצענו להם את הסרט ללא…
— Yuval Abraham יובל אברהם (@yuval_abraham) September 24, 2026
“Its screening will be a brave decision in the face of great violence aimed at concealing it,” he wrote. “I know there is enormous demand to watch the film, and I hope that in this way, everyone will soon be able to see it: whether in cinemas or online in a few weeks.”
The documentary is due to be released globally in theaters in over 50 countries, the Guardian reported on Thursday, making its North American premiere on Saturday at the New York Film Festival.
IAC will air clips from October 7 outside theater screening ‘NAZA’
In the wake of this announcement, the Israeli-American Council (IAC) announced that it intended to hold a rally outside New York’s Lincoln Center, where the film is due to be screened.
During the rally, the IAC plans to show clips from October 7: Bearing Witness to the Massacre, a compilation of graphic footage from the October 7 massacre. The rally will also showcase documented material which IAC said contradicted NAZA‘s claims.
“Movies have editors. History does not,” the IAC said. “Our presence here is the message: we will not allow October 7 to be erased from the story.”
Among the expected participants of the rally are Nova festival survivors Rom El-Hai and Shalev Biton, along with Yunis Alkarnawi, a Bedouin Israeli who assisted in rescuing hundreds of people during the massacre.
The IAC also launched a petition to have theaters screening the documentary do so alongside panels featuring testimonials from October 7 survivors, background, and context.
“Artistic freedom and public responsibility are not opposing values,” IAC said. “Context is not censorship. It is responsibility.”
In his post, Abraham wrote that recognizing atrocities in Gaza “does not diminish for a moment the heinous massacre of October 7, for which Hamas is responsible, which soldiers talk about in the film, and which has no justification whatsoever.”
Abraham claimed that ignoring the situation in Gaza “is one of the factors that paved the way for that horrific Sabbath,” adding that “the ignoring continues.”
Some people, he said, “will tell you that it’s better to hide the truth for the sake of hasbara abroad, but that’s nonsense. There, they already know everything. Crimes are not explained but stopped. Hiding the truth first and foremost poisons our society and, above all, allows the harm to human beings in Gaza to continue.”
IDF representative attends ‘NAZA’ screening in Italy
On Thursday, N12 reported that, after unsuccessfully attempting to obtain a copy of the documentary, an IDF representative had gone to see a screening of the film in Bologna, Italy.
According to N12, in the wake of this viewing, the military assembled a document detailing all the claims made in the documentary and is considering potential responses and courses of action.
One IDF source told N12 that the army is not considering altering its strike policies, saying that “We operated with perfect precision from the start, and a level doesn’t need straightening.”
