Dehumanization is facilitated when the sacrifices of war are made invisible in Gaza

In a new documentary, it is revealed how Israel's warfare via computer screens dehumanizes the Gazans. There is no excuse for such a brutal situation. An excerpt from Dagens Nyheter, 2026-10-21 09:32 Original article address: https://www.dn.se/ledare/max-hjelm-avhumaniseringen-underlattas-nar-krigets-offer-gors-osynliga-i-gaza/ Max Hjelm: Dehumanization is facilitated when the victims of the war are made invisible in Gaza Get more from DN as logged in You know you can create a free account on DN? As logged in you can access several smart features. - Follow your interests - Newsletter A computer system calculates the probability that a Palestinian is linked to Hamas, another gives points for how many civilian deaths the Israeli military can accept in an attack on the person. This is apparent in the new documentary "Naza," which deals with Israel's warfare in Gaza. The title carries connotations that are probably intentional. But the name is also a shortening of the Hebrew term nezek agavi, or what English speakers call "collateral damage". Civilian deaths, that is. Here are the sadly familiar images of Palestinian dead children whose parents are crying amidst the massacres, virtually absent. Instead, almost the entire film takes place on the roofs of Tel Aviv, where 24 anonymous people who have worked or are working for the Israeli defense forces (IDF) are interviewed. You get an insight into an optimized and gamified mass murder machine. The soldiers do not talk about casualties when they choose targets – only the number of "naza". A target could yield everything from ten to several hundred naza – a soldier explains that an entire neighborhood was pulverized in the hope of killing one (1) person. A feeling of reality escape emerges when you watch the documentary. The battles are fought from computer screens. Some soldiers report that when 75 percent of a neighborhood in Gaza was evacuated, the data system turned green, and they bombed those who remained. Then they went out and ate or drank alcohol in Tel Aviv. One soldier only describes his task as "technical", another says it feels like a "data game", and a third insists it is "fun". A feeling of reality escape emerges when you watch the documentary The documentary has received criticism on journalistic grounds. Partly because it relies almost entirely on anonymous interviews as sources. Partly also because of its presentation. The editor-in-chief of the Dutch Weekend Times, Martin Krasnik, for example, argues that context is missing, and that the documentarians blur between the explanation that Israel accepted the killing of civilians to achieve military goals, and that murdering Palestinians was the intention (1/10). Jan Söderqvist points out in Svenska Dagbladet that the film does not comment at all on Hamas's strategy, which includes the deaths of Palestinians (29/9). The criticism is not without merit. One can add that the very existence of the naza calculations suggests that the Israeli army has not allowed or sought the maximum possible killing of Palestinians. These facts do not overshadow what the documentary actually shows. And the fact is that its core does not consist of new revelations. Already two years ago, the Israeli website +972 Magazine – with the director of "Naza" Yuval Abraham as the reporting reporter – and The Guardian published the information that Israel uses AI models on a large scale to identify targets, and the greatly increased number of civilian deaths considered tolerable in connection with attacks on terrorists. What "Naza" does above all is to transform the words about these computer screen soldiers into human beings of flesh and blood. Show what this means in practice. The total dehumanization that this type of warfare leads to. In the film, a soldier tells how he was in a meeting where they discussed whether they should try to take Hamas members on the day they trained, had meetings, fought – or at night when they slept in their homes. The latter would be easier, but would lead to large civilian losses. Everyone around the table voted to kill them at night. In front of the screens, speaking about naza scores, the soldiers hardly notice that they are committing mass murder of civilians. Only then and there reality breaks through. A soldier tells how he, through a hacked mobile phone, heard a child crying and a mother moving around the house seconds before a bomb he sent killed them. Another tells how they bombed several families, believing a Hamas member was at home. But it was just his mobile phone that was forgotten in the apartment – the civilians were killed for nothing. A soldier explains in "Naza" how bodies lie everywhere in Gaza, that they are not buried. What happens to these extinguished lives? The dogs eat them, he explains. There is a gap there. The distance created by screens and game-like systems creates a gap. Read more: Max Hjelm: The proposed meeting should send shivers down the spine of Europe's leaders Max Hjelm: Crazy that terrorists label Sally Rooney Max Hjelm: Culture cannot just be about preserving the Vasa ship DN: The editorial staff of DN: Trump dislikes Zelenskyj – but that does not explain his attacks on Ukraine