Death in Gaza

In the Spring of 2003, filmmaker James Miller and reporter Saira Shah, the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning duo behind the Afghanistan documentaries UNHOLY WAR and BENEATH THE VEIL, traveled to the Gaza Strip to look inside the lives of children growing up in a war-torn world of unremitting violence, death, and racial and religious hatred. The documentary examines the lives of 12-year-old Ahmed; his best friend, Mohammad; and Najila, a 16-year-old girl who lives in a particularly dangerous neighborhood surrounded by Israeli sniper towers. Though Mohammad's mother makes a desperate plea for peace, the boys throw rocks at Israeli tanks, build homemade bombs, and are recruited by a paramilitary group. Meanwhile, Israeli tanks roll into Najila's neighborhood, crushing and exploding homes in a search for militants.

The documentarians intended to follow up the portrait of the Palestinian children with a look into the lives of Israeli children living under the threat of terrorist attacks, but then, while waving a white flag of peace, James Miller was gunned down by Israeli tanks, dying instantly. Shah returned alone to edit their footage. The result is a harrowing, intimate, and deeply moving film that tells the terrible story of life and death in the Gaza Strip.