User reviews

This a really amazing look at the intertwined lives in this conflict. The film explores the attitudes of those trapped in this struggle, the day-to-day issues of living in a war zone and the hopes for the future that some still have after all of this. The filmmaker manages to cast a fairly objective view of what's happening in Gaza. The film is amazing in that the camera gets into places one could never imagine possible. A truly noble pursuit. The fact that the director lost his life creating this necessary work is a testament to the dedication of himself and his partner. Placing a very human face on this struggle is mesmerizing; the shots of the militants interacting with children, the people who's homes were destroyed by tanks, really helps one understand the chaos of the situation on the ground there.

James Miller goes to the Palestine territory to film the children of the Intifada and is killed by Israeli firepower. His murder is a stunning coda to a filmed account of how war corrupts the innocence of children. Miller begins the film acquainting us with the geography of Palestine, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip. We meet, get up close and personal, with the battle hardened "martyrs" of the Hamas jihad. Hidden by masks they seduce the children, so needy for heroes and mentors, with speeches of death and destruction. Blow yourself up and go to paradise. We meet the children, feckless, disingenuous children learning to kill, feeling the heft of a gun, basking in the praise of the masked warriors. There are the girls, praying for the destruction of Israel, eager to emulate their male counterparts. The children seduce us with their wide-eyed appeal, their ability to absorb the most horrible blows as their homes are destroyed. One child points to his uncle's car which has been tossed into the limbs of a tree by an Israeli bulldozer that's just leveled his home. The children watch all this, relate the stories of the martyrs, and seem with their open faces and fetching smiles and flashing dark eyes not to have a clue that they're living in a hell. They express the earnest belief that all will be well once the Israelis are (1) killed and (2)removed from the area between the Mediteranean and the Sea of Galilee. The innocence and naiveté are beguiling, disturbing, sad. At the last Miller meets his brutal, surprising death in the murky dusk, in the rubble of the streets of this hopeless settlement. There seems no way out. Violence begets violence. The righteous shriek their slogans. Human life is disposable. This brilliant film solves nothing. Don't believe me? Read the viewers' comments on the Message Boards. Read the insults, the disparaging remarks, the certitude of bigots and believers. James Miller. R.I.P. All the innocent children of Gaza. R.I.P. (And today I read of the death of journalists from U.S. TV in Iraq. When will it end?)

I am an American of Palestinian descent, and this film broke my heart. Unfortunately, the filmmaker only got to tell one side of the story before he died. The way some of the Palestinian adults (note not ALL of them -- for example, one boy's mother is shown begging him to stop his martyr talk) radicalize their children is shocking and upsetting. However, had Miller lived, he probably would have show some Israeli adults doing the same.

No matter which side you're on, this is a very sad and thought-provoking documentary. Anyone who's interested in the conflict in the Middle East should definitely watch it and see the level of desperation that the people there have reached.

I saw Fahrenheit 9/11 and while it is not in the category for best documentary in the Oscars anymore, and it probably would have won, it definitely comes second to this film. Death in Gaza exposes the true horror that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has caused to both the Palestinians and the Israelis. The story by James Miller and Saira Shah show us how everyday Palestinians live. They never give any biased opinions on whether the Israelis are to blame for the current state the Palestinians live in, yet they show in a true journalistic fashion Palestinian life and culture in its fullest form. The movie is a documentation of children in Palestine and the struggles and dangers they face on an every day basis. It shows how they are pushed by cultural ideologies to believe that being a martyr is somehow more glorious than living a peaceful life. In the movie the children are the focal point of the movie. From an American standpoint it is a real eye-opener at the way they live, what they are taught at school, how they create bombs out of cans, and the way they are recruited by radical groups in Palestine to perform acts of terror against the Israelis. We are shown the other side to a conflict we only usually receive an Israeli voice for. The fact that director James Miller died creating this movie only adds to this dramatic documentary that made me think about what can we do to make this world a better place?

This is a classic documentary that should be seen by all film students. Unfortunately the director was killed needlessly by Israeli troops before he got to film the second half of his story and follow three Israeli kids.

If we in the U.S.A. had not had Martin Luther King when we did, we might very well be in the same position today as the Israelis and the Palestinians. The conflict will go on forever as long as radicals on both sides keep doing what they are doing. In a speech here about 3 years ago, Michael Moore had advice to the Palestinians: Lay down your arms and do what the civil rights protesters in the U.S. did--sit down in the streets, don't go to work, don't ride the buses, simply stop and do nothing and the economy will come to a halt. Many of you will be killed, he said, just as civil rights protesters in this country were killed, but peaceful protest is the only solution.

The endless cycle of hatred and violence by both sides is a horrid tragedy, and this film takes you right into the heart of it. It's difficult to watch but impossible to stop watching. One of the best documentaries I've ever seen.

I saw this film at the Berlin Film Festival with James Miller's parents among the audience. Never before has a film touched me so deeply as Death in Gaza, and I can only recommend it to anybody, who likes a bit of the real world. Sometimes documentary can give you so much more than a fiction film.

This film comes so close on the Palestinian conflict, that you can taste the dusty air of Rafah. The camera is among the young boys, when they throw rocks at the Israelian tanks, and you see them pick up pieces of brain from an asassined Palestinian, so they can bury him properly. And you see the Terrorists/freedom fighters use the young boys as their scouts when they plan to attack the Israelian military. There is no good grown up people in this film, but as James Miller said: The children are the future. His point was to follow first the Palestinian children and later the Israelian children. He was killed before he could finish it. I left the cinema with tears in my eyes, and so did half of the audience.

i have just watched this real life documentary on TV yesterday i was really moved by it,by the idea the portrayal of the real terrorism, when lands are stolen and taken by force and then when pple try to defend their lands and families and resist they are called terrorists now I'm against the idea of one bombing him self, or ending his life by his own hands,and I'm also against the killing of the civilians even if they are the occupiers my religion abides us to fight in the land of war those who fight us,not kill civilians however,this film shows the truth that is hidden in the western media, and explains why childhood fades away in between the gray colors of war.. how children are mind programmed that bombing ones self is being a mryter which is not any way this film is a must see..if you want to open your eyes to the reality over-there..but be careful your eyes maybe full of tears while watching.. !

A new meaning to robbing the cradle......

Watching these children through out their daily routine, of waking to the sound of gunshots, throwing rocks at the invading tanks, being trained for martyrdom, and attending "funerals" (which are seen more as a victory, for the cause) is heart breaking. The children know no other world, nothing else but losing their family, and being prepared that they will be the next to go. Its for the cause, they say, its for Allah, its for Palestine, and their people.

The children are used as spies to go out into the street to watch out for trouble. They are children, they will not hurt them. Oh, but they will. Do not question whether a soldier will murder a young boy because he stands in the way of his tank, or gunfire. He will run over him, he will fire at him, he will take any life he can, because he knows that that child is growing up in a world of pure hate for the Israelis. That child will grow up, and kill Israelis. Its a very sad thought, but its true. These children experience NO childhood. They are born, and brought into training.

They will not die of old age, they will not die of a heart attack at 55, they will be martyred and their families will all be glad. They will rejoice, and praise Allah, that a young child was taken from them for the greater good. To use their deaths against Israel.

James Miller was also murdered during the filming of his documentary. He and his crew put their lives on the line to bring you this knowledge, and while you may have already had an idea that its hell over in Palestine, you've now gotten a chance to see it up close, without putting yourself in that danger.

Freedom is something to fight for, its something to defend, and even something to die for, but these children die for nothing.

I caught this about a third of the way through on HBO one night. I used to wonder just what caused some kids to grow up to strap a bomb to themselves and try and take as many innocent Israelis with them as possible. Now I know.

I spent a great deal of time absorbed in the films sheer, gritty horror of the bleak desperation that is the Palestinian world. Sometimes I couldn't believe what I saw and heard; my mouth was literally agape about half the time. It was the most shocking, horrifying, and saddening display of pure, brutal inhumanity ever recorded on camera, in my opinion. It lays plain the reality that evil begets evil and shows that evil is a cycle that will continue to consume innocent lives on both sides unless truth and compassion finally win out, if such a thing is even possible anymore.

Many of you think might think that nothing can justify the evils Palestinian suicide bombers visit on innocent Israelis. You're right. Nothing can justify it. But those young men and women with the bombs strapped on had lives too. And when they're raised in an environment of utter poverty, taught nothing but propaganda in their 'schools' and society, see their friends killed right in front of them by 'the Israeli pigs', forced to attend great, joyous ceremonies around the bodies of 'martyrs' (including young boys who did nothing wrong and got shot for it), and are befriended by young Arab martyrs who grew up exactly the same way, it's no wonder Hamas and Hezbollah has such a large supply of human bombs to throw at Israel.

The supreme irony here is that the two young Palestinian boys who were the focus of a lot of the film decided to become journalists instead of martyrs due to the friendship they felt for the films director, James Miller. He was shot in the neck by an arab-Israeli trooper in an APC at night near the end of the film crews time in Gaza; he died almost instantly. The crew had yelled that they were British journalists to the crew of the APC, but it didn't matter; the shots come anyways.

Had the films director not died, we would have seen the Israeli's side of the story. Unfortunately, the film claimed its title in innocent blood striving for answers to a cycle of never-ending violence in the Middle East.

'Death in Gaza' is about just that: death. The death of innocence, the death of truth, the death of hope for the residents of the Palestinian territories surrounding Israel.

If you wonder why the Middle East is such a mess, see this film. Then you'll know the answer.

ITs so obvious that this movie is a useful tool for the corrupted Palestinian propaganda machine. I am a reporter and have been for the past 7 years here in the middle east working for a European local newspaper. I have been here since the beginning of the second intifada and i have been horrified but the countless homicide bombings in cafés, restaurants, centers, clubs.... etc. here in Israel, where not one honest decent reporter has ever shown the thousands of innocent people, woman and children, old and young, that are directly affected by these violent attacks, that serve no purpose in putting foreword the Palestinian "cause". Why doesn't this film show the hospitals where bomb victims on the Israeli Side are laying in hospitals beds, or brain dead in the many hospital wards.. how many of the Israeli public don't want to be "occupiers" in the West Bank and Gaza and are there to prevent TERRORITS and insist on calling them that since a freedom fighter doesn't attack innocent bystanders., from penetrating into country and blowing themselves up for the 72 virgins waiting in heaven promised by the brainwasher's pulling the strings. Go to the Israeli schools and see how they promote peace and fraternity and see how children are afraid to ride on the bus since a friend or someone they know blew up on a bus.. then to be balanced, go to the Palestinian schools, and don't be shy, go to many, see how 100% of them promote hatred, incitement and no hope for peace whatsoever..no wonder there is no hope... don't get me wrong we all want a Palestinian state, even the Israelis, more than what the media has shown, but with all the concessions the Israelis are doing now, uprooting the families of Jewish people from the land that by international law, have every right to be in that territory (territory that is captured during war belongs to the captors up until a negotiated agreement via an international body is agreed), not to mention biblically... but thats another story, and for nothing in return, what has ABBAS done? nothing but incorporate the terrorists into their so called corrupted door-revolving government and not doing nothing, except for show, to stop terrorism as agreed in the road peace... all i am saying is look at both sides of the conflict and see what is really happening in both countries.. it hurts to see Palestinian children hurt on the streets and journalists killed in the crossfire of a WAR ZONE (which they know the risks by going there in the first place) and by the way, the Israeli army is portrayed not only in this joke of a movie but unfortunately in the media as an aggressive heartless absent minded killing machine since its politically correct to see it that way because its better ratings overall...that is a total lie and you have to understand the stress this young soldiers are faced with everyday and that they are totally human like everybody else, not wanting to be where they are but to know that if they wont be there to stop the homicide bombers, who will be? and how hard it is to know who is the enemy and who is "innocent" since that 85% of the population support violent means of "resistance" and Holy Jihad... its easy to point the camera one direction and make a person a monster.. think about it.. its like making a good movie, all you need is a skilled director and take a few things out of context and a few isolated scenes and voilà!!!!

Some of the comments on this board regarding Death In Gaza are truly astounding. I'm refering to the users who describe the Palestinians in this film as "barbaric" and Israel as a "peaceful nation." We must have seen different documentaries because I didn't see it this way at all. I saw local Palestinian militia defending themselves against illegal occupiers and I saw Palestinian children throwing rocks at huge Isreali tanks (paid for by US dollars). The user who describes Israel as a "peaceful nation" must believe those tanks shoot flowers and stuffed teddy bears. If Israel is so peaceful why do they need a multi billion dollar army? To defend themselves against kids with rocks and an occasional suicide bomber? Wake up. This was an amazing film and kudos to HBO for airing it, although judging by a number of the comments on this board, the point was completely lost on many people.

James Miller was a documentary cameraman who died making his final film – a look at the day-to-day reality of the conflict between Israel and Palestine. He died as part of that conflict when he was shot in the neck. This film charts his final work as he interviews the children who are the next generation of the conflict who have been born into the situation knowing nothing else.

Being from Northern Ireland I will admit that I have grown up with my own complex conflict of terrorists and murders to come to terms with and thus have never made time to find out a great deal of the "truth" about the situation in the Middle East. As a result I have no bias towards one side or the other which I think is a good thing since many of the reviews on this site seem to be more about people's views of the situation rather than being reviews of the actual film. With such an emotive subject perhaps this can be excused but when I watched it I tried to keep an open mind to all sides of the argument and try and review the film as it was made rather than just ranting at people.

Watching it myself I must admit to being a bit surprised by those who say it is biased towards justifying the Palestine actions or that it portrays Israel as a vicious army only attacking children for no real reason. Personally I didn't think it did either of these things and actually shows the opposite regularly. It manages to avoid issues of right/wrong by looking at the children, not the history of the conflict. True it might have been better if he had done this with children on both sides but simply following one side doesn't mean the film is biased towards them – indeed seeing the next generation of Palestinians talking about wanting to be martyred while attacking Israel could hardly be seen as presenting them in a good light. The main thrust of the film is to show how hopeless the situation is – both sides are right and both sides are wrong and whole generations of people seem to just want to fight and die. It is utterly depressing and the film does pretty well in bringing this out by looking how, outside of the political agenda the problem is ongoing. In Northern Ireland the will of the people is mostly for peace and negotiation but here you don't see that.

Overall this is an engagingly depressing documentary. The way it turns at the end to be more about Miller than the conflict undermines it a little bit but it is easy to forgive given what happened and considering that the film does stand as a memorial to the director. Well worth seeing although I can understand why many viewers have found it impossible to get past their politics and just watch the film.

The movie itself is very poignant. The children are being trained to be resistance fighters, but in view of the destruction of lives and homes they must face every day, it os perfectly understandable? It made me ask myself how I would feel if Russians or Canadians were bulldozing my neighborhood and shooting at my family. This movie provides an in depth look at one side of a contriversy. If the producer had not been shot by Israeli troops, we probably would have had an equally poignant telling of the plight of Israeli children as well. The refusal of Israel or its military to be accountable for the filmed murder of the producer is stunning and unbelievable. I feel for his wife and child, as "Death in Gaza" showed him to be a good man. I recommend this film, but warn that it is intense on an emotional level at times.

I saw Death in Gaza as a wonderful documentary about the horror of life in and around the Israel border. Too many times we hear of bombings and death in Israel without seeing the other side of the story. This film gives a voice to those who do not have the cameras or television stations to broadcast their side. Because of the extreme poverty of the these people they simply did not have the resources to film what everyday life is like living with the intimidation of a much wealthier country who has the largest world powers as their allies. One has to admire the makers of this documentary for being willing to get this story and for ultimately for paying the highest price and becoming themselves yet another statistic.

Your comments on James Miller's death at the end of filming "Death In Gaza" were extremely distasteful. A dedicated filmmaker was murdered; needlessly shot in the throat by Israeli units. Israeli units with night-vision equipment who were capable of seeing the white flag the film crew were waving. James Miller was killed in cold blood & no one has been held responsible, which is a clear indication of what Israel & the IDF think about Justice. The murder of James Miller was recognised in the UK media but not the countless murders of innocent Palestinians by Israel's brutal occupation. Day after day, after day. When Israel is a nation with no actual right to exist; I am neither Palestinian or Arab, I have never left the UK, but from thousands of miles away I can see the blaring injustice of a nation with the population of London, Armed to the back teeth with the single unified purpose of destroying the original, Muslim, inhabitants. Palestinians are in need of justice, not criticism. Naturally I agree all terrorism is wrong, but that includes state terrorism. The world wouldn't stand for Naziism, or Apertheid; we should not stand for Zionism. Love & Light2d

This is probably the most shocking documentary I have ever seen. The film is very one-sided but the reasons for this become pretty obvious at the end.

I think the camera crew's original plan was to film both sides of the conflict and it probably would have been a more balanced documentary, although no where near as shocking. I thought the film did a good job of portraying the Palestians as human, although with an extreme hatred for the Israelis. This film portrays the IDF as extremely brutal but never shows the motivation behind their actions (IE: Suicide bombers) so it will leave the viewer with an extremely prejudiced view of the whole conflict. But if you can look past this it is still a very well done documentary.

This is a disgusting film...disgusting in that- it shows you how horrible the adults in the palestinian areas are, and how they will ensure the terrorism continues, by teaching their children to hate the "pigs" (the word they use for israelis- millions of whom are peaceful people who just want to live a happy, safe life like these people who hate them). you see militants, who always hide their faces behind black masks- the mark of true cowards...they can blow an innocent israeli child up, but they cant even show their faces when they do it. they take these kids- this film is centered around the kids- into the camps and urge them to fight as well, teaching the kids that becoming a martyr and being killed in the purpose of fighting the terrorists (israelis- clearly these kids have it backward).

you see how sick some of these people are...one of the militants talks about how he loves ahmed- one of the very young boys, and how he is like a little brother. then, the true nature of these sick human comes out- when asked by the filmmaker (the woman on the team) if ahmed is too young to fight and maybe be killed- the militant tells her...dont worry about responsibility, when ahmed says goodbye to us, there are a thousand other children just like him- exposing this animal for who hs truly is, not a man who cares about this little boy, but a man who will brain wash this child into hating all israelis- tricking him into thinking that the state of israel is the terrorist group, not the man hugging him holding the gun, vowing to kill innocent people for allah.

this film does one big thing- it shows the world that we must have a free press in the palestinian areas...and we must make sure children are taught REALITY. in one scene the teacher talks about israel stole their land in 1948 and in 1967- never mentioning that the land was taken in 1967 because israel was attacked by NUMEROUS surrounding nations, and they were forced to take much of that land as a security buffer- israel was on the DEFENSE, they were the ones attacked, yet the teacher uses propaganda to convince the girls that israel is evil and they stole land from these poor innocent people (innocent people who teach their kids to throw boulders at passing military vehicles- who teach their kids to get in the middle of battles, hoping for a casualty- which they can use for international propaganda purposes.)

im not really sure what the filmmakers opinions on the overall subject matter is, just that the kids are being abused by the adults- brainwashed and tricked into shooting at forces who are merely routing out terrorists. i truly believe from watching this film that palestinian society, as a whole, is downright barbaric- and they pass these barbaric thoughts on to their children, and their children do the same- and, in the end, it's a never ending cycle, and it's because of this that there is no peace in the region.

STOP using these poor kids for your brutal ways- stop doing all you can to recruit kids into your terrorist groups, urging them to die for the cause- to die for allah. it's sick, and until these parents stop abusing these children, i'm afraid very little will change.