LONDON: The Israeli government is promoting a documentary that imitates an award-winning film exposing the mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, as authorities intensify efforts to discredit the original production and its Israeli directors, UK newspaper The Guardian has reported.

Israeli embassies have shared links to “NAZA: The Real Story,” an online film designed to counter allegations raised in “NAZA,” a Guardian-produced documentary that draws on interviews with 24 Israeli soldiers and intelligence officers who describe the military’s use of AI-assisted surveillance to select targets during the war in Gaza.

The rival production, hosted on nazadocumentary.com, echoes the original film’s visual style, including anonymous interviews filmed on rooftops in Tel Aviv, but presents a defense of Israeli military operations.

The film’s creator, Israeli lawyer and army reservist Ariel Averbuch, described the project as an “offensive move” aimed at shifting attention away from allegations surrounding the Israeli military’s killing of civilians in Gaza. The film argues that Israel has the “most moral army in the world.”

The Israeli government endorsed the rival production on Thursday, announcing certificates of appreciation for its creators for their contribution to Israeli public diplomacy and citing its claimed audience of tens of millions.

The Israeli Embassy in Washington, which promoted the film on social media, told The Guardian that the foreign ministry had not participated in its production.

It said the embassy intended to amplify arguments challenging what it described as false allegations against Israel.

The rival film’s website was registered on Sept. 16, six days after the original documentary premiered at the Venice International Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Prize and garnered a 25-minute standing ovation.

According to The Guardian, the website initially presented itself as a promotional platform for the original “NAZA,” falsely identifying its directors, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, as the filmmakers behind the project and listing festivals where their documentary would be screened.

Those references were subsequently removed and replaced with material promoting “NAZA: The Real Story.”

A Guardian spokesperson accused the Israeli government of promoting a film through a website that had initially misrepresented its identity.

“This was a brazen attempt to mislead audiences and distract from the urgent questions raised by ‘NAZA,’” the spokesperson said.

The website displays a counter claiming more than 42.7 million views, although The Guardian reported that the film’s official YouTube page had recorded only about 30,000.

A technical analysis cited by the newspaper suggested the website’s counter could reflect requests made by visitors or automated bots rather than actual video views.

The original 80-minute documentary examines how Israeli forces identified suspected Hamas operatives and carried out strikes despite intelligence indicating that large numbers of Palestinian civilians could be killed.

Its title refers to an acronym used by Israeli intelligence to describe anticipated civilian casualties in military strikes.

The documentary was directed by Abraham and Szor, two of the four filmmakers behind the Oscar-winning “No Other Land,” which documented the displacement of Palestinians and destruction of homes in Masafer Yatta in the occupied West Bank.

Following its Venice premiere, “NAZA” has been released in cinemas internationally and is scheduled to be screened in more than 50 countries. It will also be made available free on The Guardian’s website from late November.

The documentary has faced fierce opposition from Israeli officials, who have accused its directors of treason and sought to revoke their citizenship.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has backed legislative measures that would allow authorities to strip citizenship from Israelis accused of defaming the military.

The Israeli military has rejected the documentary’s allegations and issued a 10-page response challenging its findings.

The filmmakers said their investigation drew on testimony from more than 100 sources familiar with Israel’s military operations and intelligence systems.

The backlash has also included threats against the directors, demonstrations outside their families’ homes and calls by far-right activists to pursue them.

At the London Film Festival on Thursday, producer James Wilson said the filmmakers had anticipated criticism but not the intensity of the response.

He said the threats and accusations from political leaders had made the experience frightening and stressful for the directors.

A UN commission of inquiry concluded in September 2025 that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza, an accusation the Israeli government rejects.