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.

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.

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.

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.