The film, "Naza", was made by Oscar-winning Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor. The extended applause, witnessed by an AFP reporter, is believed to be a new Venice record, surpassing the 23-minute ovation received by another Gaza-related film at last year's festival.

For the 80-minute documentary, Abraham and Szor interviewed 24 Israeli military and intelligence whistleblowers who spoke on condition that their identities would be protected.

"We are letting the soldiers and the officers speak about what they did," Abraham told AFP.

"The goal was very simple: we wanted to hear in as much detail as possible, how the systems of killing in Gaza looked like, how they operated."

The film features testimony from former or current personnel who describe their experience of Israel's military operations in Gaza as resembling a killing "factory" or a lethal video game.

The title "Naza" comes from a euphemism that the filmmakers say is used by Israeli intelligence to indicate the expected number of civilian deaths associated with an airstrike.

Whistleblowers describe AI targeting system

Several interviewees described an artificial intelligence system known as "Lavender", which they said was used to identify people for assassination.

One former participant described the process as being carried out on a mass scale "like a factory".

According to the documentary's testimony, Lavender uses data gathered through extensive surveillance of Gaza, including information about telephone calls, movements and interactions, to identify potential targets.

"The system's parameters are so complex, it's hard to understand," one interviewee who said he had worked on the system told the filmmakers.

Other interviewees alleged that civilian homes were systematically destroyed and that international humanitarian and wartime laws were disregarded.

One person involved in target identification compared the process to a video game because operations were conducted remotely. Another described the experience as "insanely fun".

The film has been described by Screen magazine as an "urgent, gut-punch" and prompted strong reactions from critics, including The Hollywood Reporter.

Film explores Gaza war and Israeli policy

"Naza" is the result of a nearly three-year investigation and is the only documentary competing at this year's Venice Film Festival, which concludes on Saturday.

While festival ovations are not considered a definitive measure of a film's quality, they can indicate the immediate reaction of audiences and critics.

Abraham and Szor, alongside Palestinian filmmakers Basel Adra and Hamdan Ballal, won the 2025 Academy Award for "No Other Land", which documented Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank.

Their latest documentary was produced by Britain's Jim Wilson, with assistance from Jonathan Glazer and Britain's Guardian newspaper. Glazer directed "The Zone of Interest", which won the Oscar for best international feature.

The filmmakers said they hoped "Naza" would encourage Western governments to reconsider their support for Israel and increase pressure through sanctions.

"Those of us inside Israel and Palestine trying to fight for change need it," Abraham told AFP. "You are weakening the people inside who are supporting human rights and a political solution by refusing to act."

Gaza casualties and restrictions on reporting

Israel's military campaign in Gaza followed the October 7, 2023 attacks, which killed 1,219 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry says around 73,500 Palestinians have been killed and 174,500 wounded since the conflict began. The United Nations has described the ministry's casualty figures as reliable.

Last year, "The Voice of Hind Rajab", a docu-drama about the killing of a five-year-old Palestinian girl, won the festival's second prize after receiving a 23-minute standing ovation at its premiere.

The documentary comes amid growing criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's policies among prominent figures in the international entertainment industry and sections of Western public opinion.

Foreign journalists have largely been barred from independently reporting from Gaza since the beginning of the conflict, apart from limited access under tightly controlled arrangements with the Israeli military.