Israeli Whistleblowers Detail Gaza Targeting in Venice Film

"Our film is showing that the basic targeting unit of the Israeli targeting systems is a family home in Gaza," Abraham told Deadline before the premiere. "Every building in Gaza, every home in Gaza has a number."

Abraham said the strikes were not driven by fire coming from those homes. "Houses are not bombed because Hamas are firing rockets from them, which is what we've consistently heard from intelligence officers," he said. "The houses are bombed because it's easier to bomb people and to find them when they go home to sleep at night."

He also accused Israel's mainstream broadcasters of looking away. "Mainstream Israeli media is totally uninterested in asking these questions, in asking soldiers about the actions that they've done, which have contributed to the mass killing of Palestinian civilians," he told Deadline, saying that in his view outlets such as Haaretz and +972 Magazine are the exception.

Szor, who is also the film's cinematographer, described the split with her co-director as one of temperament, not process: "As directors, we just talk about everything, what exactly are we looking for; the questions that need to be asked… the structure, what story we will tell."

Abraham said several interviewees reached for Holocaust comparisons unprompted, including one soldier who said that after taking part in the killing of so many civilians he felt he understood something new about German society in the 1930s and 1940s.