John Spencer, an expert on urban warfare and Chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point, sharply criticized the documentary NAZA on Monday, accusing it of presenting claims about the war in Gaza that go beyond even those made by Hamas.
“Worse than Hamas propaganda," Spencer wrote in a post on X after watching the documentary in its entirety. “Over three years, I’ve tried not to be surprised by ignorance, disinformation, and distortions relating to war, but this is at the top for many reasons."
Spencer said he intends to publish a detailed analysis of the documentary, but singled out one statement that appears prominently during the film: “Israel has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians in Gaza."
“Not even Hamas says this," Spencer wrote, arguing that the statement effectively attributes every death in Gaza since October 7 to Israel.
Spencer noted that Hamas itself has killed Gazans in efforts to maintain its control and that armed clashes have taken place between Hamas and anti-Hamas clans.
He also pointed to rockets fired by terrorist organizations from Gaza that fell short and landed inside the territory. According to Spencer, as many as 20% of the approximately 12,000 rockets fired by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad at Israel fell inside Gaza.
Spencer further argued that recent Hamas reporting has included natural deaths on its lists, making it inaccurate, in his view, to attribute the entire reported death toll to Israeli military action.
“To say every person that died in Gaza was killed by Israel is a vulgar lie," he charged.
Spencer said the casualty claim was only one of numerous problems he found in the documentary.
“There are a lot of other lies, lies by omission, and lies of ignorance in NAZA, but this claim is unique," he wrote, saying that it represents the use of “lies, damned lies, and statistics" to advance accusations that contradict both “the actual number put out by Hamas" and the reality on the ground.
Spencer said he plans to release a more extensive analysis of the documentary in the near future.