AIBRIEF
The Oscar winning Israeli directors behind 'NAZA' say 24 anonymous sources described an AI system called 'Lavender' that flags Gazans for killing; the IDF says the sources can't be verified.
The Israeli-made documentary "NAZA" drew a 25-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival this week, where Oscar-winning directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor premiered testimony from 24 anonymous Israeli whistleblowers about an AI targeting system called "Lavender." The premiere came a day before the Israeli military issued a categorical rejection of the allegations.
The IDF said Friday it "categorically rejects" the claims, arguing the anonymous interviewees' identities, service histories, and access cannot be verified, and that some allegations cover national strategy "clearly beyond the knowledge of junior-level soldiers." Abraham told AFP the goal was to hear how the systems of killing in Gaza operated. The subjects appear with digitally altered voices and faces, filmed on Tel Aviv rooftops at night.
The whistleblowers describe Lavender as drawing on mass surveillance of Gaza's telecom network, including phone calls, movements, and interactions, to flag people for assassination. They call the operation a "factory" and a "lethal video game," with disregard for war and humanitarian law. The title "NAZA" is a military euphemism for the number of civilians expected to be killed in an airstrike. The Lavender system was first reported by +972 Magazine and Local Call in April 2024; the film layers witness testimony on top.
Documented tolls frame the dispute: at least 73,658 Palestinians killed in Gaza since October 2023, per the Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures the United Nations deems reliable; 1,221 killed in the October 7, 2023 attack, per an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.