A brand new Israeli documentary challenges the image of the Gaza struggle offered in NAZA, utilizing testimony from officers and troopers who fought contained in the Gaza Strip.
Naza: The Actual Story has now recorded greater than 43 million views, in response to the counter on the documentary’s web site.
The movie options Israeli troopers and senior officers describing what they are saying they encountered in the course of the struggle that adopted the October 7, 2023 Hamas assault on Israel.
Filmed largely by means of nighttime rooftop interviews in Tel Aviv, the documentary combines firsthand testimony with images and video footage from Gaza.
The officers describe weapons hidden in houses, tunnel shafts beneath youngsters’s beds, Hamas fighters working in civilian clothes and navy infrastructure inside locations usually protected against assault.
Their accounts current a really completely different image from NAZA.
The Painful Actuality Inside Gaza
One soldier within the documentary describes coming into a home for which his unit had no regarding intelligence.
Inside a youngsters’s bed room, troopers lifted a mattress and located an anti-tank cost beneath it.
Within the dad and mom’ bed room, beside a child’s crib, they discovered a crate containing about 30 mortar shells.
The officer mentioned troopers repeatedly encountered weapons and navy tools inside houses they entered.
“Did we come throughout a home with weapons within the youngsters’s room? It’s important to ask it the opposite approach round. Was there a home the place we didn’t come throughout weapons and fight tools?” he requested.
The documentary additionally reveals tunnel shafts beneath beds and inside youngsters’s rooms.
The troopers say these discoveries made it troublesome to tell apart between houses getting used solely by civilians and houses included into Hamas navy operations.
Hamas Fighters Dressed as Civilians
A number of officers say Hamas fighters hardly ever wore uniforms throughout fight.
One soldier mentioned his unit “didn’t encounter a single terrorist carrying a uniform.”
As an alternative, he mentioned fighters moved between buildings dressed as civilians and sometimes carried no weapons whereas outdoors.
Weapons waited for them inside homes.
One other officer described fighters carrying denims, T-shirts and caps whereas transferring amongst civilians.
The troopers mentioned this offered one in all their best operational issues.
An individual who appeared unarmed could possibly be a civilian, a Hamas operative, a messenger gathering intelligence, or a fighter transferring towards weapons saved inside a close-by constructing.
The movie contains an incident by which an plane tracked folks leaving a constructing from which Israeli troops had simply come below fireplace.
As a result of the folks leaving the constructing appeared unarmed, the plane crew mentioned it couldn’t fireplace.
Hamas Used Kids and Civilians
The officers additionally describe Hamas utilizing civilian motion to collect intelligence.
Throughout one ceasefire, youngsters approached Israeli positions whereas operatives adopted behind and photographed the troops, in response to testimony within the documentary.
The troopers believed the images can be used to arrange assaults as soon as the ceasefire ended.
However the presence of kids and different civilians prevented the Israeli troopers from taking motion.
One other officer described civilians being despatched towards Israeli positions to find out the placement of troopers, outposts and defensive positions.
He mentioned captured civilians generally admitted throughout questioning that Hamas had despatched them.
Kindergarten Hid Hamas Infrastructure
One unit entered an space containing what troopers described as a Hamas coaching compound beside a municipal constructing and kindergarten.
The kindergarten contained weapons and pictures of kids wearing Hamas uniforms holding rifles, in response to the officer.
As troops reached the kindergarten, two fighters emerged from a tunnel shaft within the yard and fired an RPG.
5 Israeli troopers had been wounded.
Video proven within the documentary depicts the tunnel opening within the kindergarten yard.
The officer questioned whether or not the placement functioned as a kindergarten, navy coaching space or offensive place.
Hamas, Unrwa and Civilian Websites
The documentary additionally raises troubling questions on Hamas operations close to UNRWA amenities.
One officer describes Hamas and UNRWA flags flying close to the identical space.
He mentioned troopers encountered a UNRWA-funded playground alongside a Hamas coaching facility, an underground system and a kindergarten.
Troopers additionally reported discovering UN-supplied rice and flour sacks getting used as protecting obstacles at combating positions.
Different officers describe ammunition stockpiles and Hamas command amenities inside or round UNRWA faculties.
These accounts don’t by themselves set up institutional cooperation between UNRWA and Hamas.
They do, nonetheless, add to longstanding proof that Hamas used civilian and humanitarian areas for navy functions.
Mosques, Colleges, Clinics and Hospitals
Officers interviewed within the documentary repeatedly describe Hamas working from places that Israeli forces considered delicate websites.
These included mosques, faculties, clinics and hospitals.
One officer described the sample within the areas he encountered as “100% bingo,” saying navy infrastructure repeatedly appeared at or close to such places.
He described tunnel junctions, command facilities, ammunition storage and hiding locations.
One other soldier mentioned weapons had been present in virtually each constructing his unit entered.
He listed AK-pattern rifles, roadside expenses, grenades and RPG launchers.
One unit entered a mosque and reported discovering a coaching space, weapons, computer systems and an entire explosives laboratory on the higher flooring.
The testimony doesn’t set up that each mosque, college or hospital in Gaza contained navy infrastructure.
It does set up that the officers interviewed say the sample was widespread within the areas the place they fought.
IDF Restrictions Round Civilian Websites
The movie additionally explains the procedures Israeli forces mentioned they adopted earlier than attacking delicate websites.
One officer mentioned strikes close to hospitals, clinics, faculties and mosques required extra approvals and proof that navy exercise was happening there.
He mentioned legal professionals and senior commanders reviewed proposed assaults.
Delicate websites had been marked on navy programs with security zones round them.
The officer mentioned these restrictions generally prevented troopers from putting Hamas fighters earlier than they moved away.
One other commander mentioned Israeli forces continuously withheld fireplace even after they believed armed Hamas operatives had been current as a result of civilians had been close by.
The documentary presents these restrictions as a vulnerability Hamas intentionally exploited.
Humanitarian Support and Hamas
One of many movie’s most critical allegations considerations humanitarian help.
An officer mentioned Israeli forces repeatedly noticed Hamas operatives strategy help convoys in autos and bikes.
In response to his testimony, armed males climbed onto vans, drove civilians away and generally fired into the air or at Gazans trying to strategy the help.
He mentioned Hamas fighters escorted convoys as a result of they knew Israeli forces wouldn’t fireplace close to humanitarian vans.
The documentary additionally describes massive meals stockpiles discovered at Hamas places.
One officer mentioned troopers encountered homes used for navy functions containing substantial portions of meals.
He additionally described Hamas-controlled warehouses, a lot of which carried UN markings.
These claims are significantly important as a result of massive portions of humanitarian help had been documented at completely different phases of the struggle ready inside Gaza for assortment and distribution.
Officer Says He Noticed No Starvation
Observations on starvation comes instantly from one of many officers interviewed.
“I didn’t come throughout starvation in Gaza,” he mentioned.
The officer mentioned that in every single place his unit operated, troopers noticed massive quantities of meals.
He attributed shortages reaching civilians to Hamas taking management of humanitarian help convoys.
He mentioned Hamas fighters seized vans, generally eliminated drivers and prevented civilians from approaching provides.
The officer repeated that he personally didn’t encounter areas with out meals.
That testimony describes what he says he noticed within the areas the place he served. It shouldn’t be handled as proof that no Gazans skilled starvation elsewhere.
Nevertheless it raises an essential query in regards to the distinction between meals coming into Gaza and that meals truly reaching civilians.
Medical Support and Hostages
Israeli officers within the documentary additionally describe medical tools coming into Gaza.
One mentioned the IDF facilitated massive portions of provides starting from dressings and disinfectants to toddler care merchandise and medicines for power situations.
He additionally described makes an attempt to ship remedy supposed particularly for Israeli hostages.
In response to the officer, he later discovered no hostage who mentioned the drugs had reached them.
Hamas and The Civilian Inhabitants
A number of officers describe Hamas intentionally remaining near civilians as a result of Israeli forces operated below tighter restrictions round populated areas.
They mentioned Hamas fighters generally prevented civilians from leaving areas the place Israeli troops had been anticipated to function.
One IDF commander described civilians reaching a sq. solely to be turned again.
Israeli forces additionally carried out raids on faculties and shelters the place officers mentioned Hamas fighters had blended into displaced civilian populations.
Throughout screening operations, troops mentioned they recognized Hamas operatives, together with some accused of participating within the October 7 assault.
Army Infrastructure Inside Properties
The documentary repeatedly returns to 1 theme: Hamas constructed its battlefield inside Gaza’s civilian surroundings.
Troopers describe tunnel entrances beneath beds, weapons inside cabinets, explosive gadgets in bedrooms and ammunition saved in faculties.
One officer described discovering a tunnel shaft beneath a child’s crib.
One other mentioned fighters moved by means of neighborhoods as civilians, entered designated homes after they needed to combat, collected weapons after which returned to civilian look when transferring once more.
The troopers argue that this methodology made distinguishing combatants from civilians terribly troublesome.
Hamas After October 7
The documentary ends by contemplating what occurs if Hamas survives the struggle.
One officer describes Hamas not merely as an armed organisation, however as an ideology that can rebuild if allowed to take action.
He mentioned troopers encountered anti-Jewish propaganda in houses, faculties and mosques.
He additionally claimed that copies of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf in Arabic appeared in lots of houses his forces entered.
Kids’s books and academic materials, he mentioned, portrayed Jews and Israeli troopers as enemies from an early age.
The officer mentioned that this indoctrination begins in childhood and continues by means of faculties, mosques and public propaganda.
A Completely different Account of The Gaza Battle
Naza: The Actual Story doesn’t ask viewers to just accept an summary navy argument.
It asks them to hearken to Israeli troopers and commanders describing what they are saying they noticed themselves.
Their testimony contains weapons beneath youngsters’s beds, tunnel shafts in houses and kindergartens, fighters dressed as civilians, Hamas operations close to delicate websites and armed management of humanitarian help.
A few of these claims stay contested, and eyewitness testimony alone can not set up what occurred all through your complete Gaza Strip.
However these accounts can not merely be ignored as a result of they complicate the acquainted narrative surrounding the Gaza struggle.
With greater than 43 million views, Naza: The Actual Story is bringing that proof and testimony to an unlimited viewers.
The Gaza story is extra difficult than slogans.
And understanding it requires listening to from the individuals who had been truly there.
