'Israel' blackmailed Palestinian war crime survivors to block ICC petitions, 'NAZA' reveals

• The Guardian documentary NAZA reveals an 'Israeli' unit spied on Palestinian war crime survivors to blackmail them into dropping ICC petitions.
• Whistleblowers claim the unit operated under Netanyahu to block legal action at The Hague and prevent Palestinian statehood.
• Insiders report rules of engagement permitting 20 to 500 civilian deaths per target, claims the military denies.
• Netanyahu ordered investigations into the whistleblowers and threatened to revoke the directors' citizenship following the film's success.

Palestinian survivors of war crimes in Gaza were spied on and blackmailed by 'Israeli' intelligence to sabotage legal petitions to international courts, according to former 'Israeli' soldiers and intelligence officers featured in the documentary NAZA.

Directed by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor and produced by The Guardian, the film is currently screening in cinemas across the UK and the US, with releases scheduled in more than 50 countries.

The documentary features interviews with 24 anonymous 'Israeli' soldiers and intelligence personnel who describe killing innocent Palestinians in Gaza and detail the inner workings of a special intelligence unit referred to by interviewees as "Bibi's Department."

Operated directly under 'Israeli' Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the unit treated Palestinian survivors of war crimes as "security threats."

"We were the department above all the other departments," one interviewee states in the film, while another intelligence officer explains that "the more war crimes we committed, the more pressure there was" on the international stage.

Blackmail used to derail ICC petitions 

According to intelligence officers in the film, "Bibi's Department" gathered compromising evidence -focusing heavily on private romantic "affairs" and "homosexual relationships"- to exert pressure on Palestinians petitioning The Hague.

One officer confirmed that legal cases at the ICC were successfully pulled as a result of these blackmail operations.

Interviewees claim that any connections between Palestinians and international officials were treated as a problem, with collected intelligence sent directly to the 'Israeli' prime minister.

"Bibi's ultimate goal was to prevent a Palestinian state," one interviewee says.

The film's title, NAZA, is a Hebrew military acronym for collateral damage.

Whistleblowers describe rules of engagement that routinely allowed up to 20 civilian deaths per strike target, with one interviewee claiming a target was approved that would result in up to 500 Palestinian civilian deaths, a claim the 'Israeli' army has allegedly denied.

Shot mostly at night on Tel Aviv rooftops with the whistleblowers' faces concealed, the documentary won the special jury prize at the Venice International Film Festival last month after receiving the longest standing ovation in the festival's history.

The film has drawn intense anger from the 'Israeli' government.

Earlier this week, Netanyahu ordered 'Israel's' attorney general and the head of its Shin Bet security service to unmask the identities of the interviewees and prosecute them for causing "harm to Israel’s diplomatic and security interests."

Furthermore, the 'Israeli' government has threatened to strip directors Abraham and Szor of their citizenship.

'Israel's' attempts to undermine international accountability mechanisms have been well documented, including the 'Israeli' campaign to remove Karim Khan as ICC chief prosecutor.

The legal battle also comes as the United States imposed sanctions on the ICC itself earlier this month.