Viewers warned latest episodes of new ‘Fauda’ season are disturbingly real

In a first for the Israeli action drama “Fauda,” producers have informed viewers that episodes 7 and 8 of the current season are based on the Hamas terrorist onslaught of October 7, 2023, and include content that may be difficult to watch.

“We want to say clearly: These episodes return to that terrible day and stand on their own,” production studio Yes wrote on social media. “If watching them is too difficult, it is also fine to skip them and reconnect with the season’s plot, which will continue in the episode airing next week.”

In recognition of their public significance, the two episodes have been made available free of charge to everyone in Israel on the Yes website.

Season 5 of “Fauda” premiered several weeks ago in Israel on Yes and is expected to be the show’s final season. A date hasn’t yet been set for screening on the streaming platform Netflix.

“Fauda” creators Lior Raz and Avi Issacharoff had to rewrite the latest season after October 7, amid the reality of the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and what the cast and crew underwent themselves.

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Actor Idan Amedi, who appeared in seasons 2, 3 and 4 of “Fauda,” and was slated to appear in the original version of Season 5, was seriously injured in an explosion while serving in the Combat Engineering Corps reserves in Gaza in January 2024.

Amedi has recovered, but doesn’t appear in the new season.

A longtime “Fauda” crew member, Matan Meir, was killed by a blast from a booby-trapped tunnel shaft next to a mosque in Beit Hanoun, in the northern Gaza Strip, in December 2023.

The first episode of the season was dedicated to Meir.

Raz, who is also the lead actor on the show, was abroad on October 7 and flew home on October 8 to join the volunteer forces of Brothers in Arms, which set up a command center to rescue those stuck in the south under heavy fire.

The revised season is set two years after October 7, dealing with life after the trauma and shock of the Hamas attack and its effect on the characters.

In the first episode, Eli (Yaakov Zada-Daniel) and Salem (Bian Anteer), a Bedouin tracker, travel to Marseille to hunt down Hamas operatives who wreaked havoc on their families and lives on October 7.

The season stars Melanie Laurent (“Inglourious Basterds”) as Anne, who meets the fighters in Marseille, accompanying them through part of their hunt.

חשבתם שהמלחמה תשבור את מלאני לורן? תחשבו שוב, כי היא כבר חלק מהצוות והיא לא מוכנה לוותר!

פאודה 5, ימי שני ב-22:00 ב-yes. pic.twitter.com/uyHGiFogFU

— yesTV (@yescoil) May 27, 2026

Steve (Doron Ben-David) and Doron Kavillo (Raz) eventually join them, and it’s clear they are also broken by the events of that day and suffering from PTSD, with Kavillo unable to remember an entire span of hours from October 7.

The season, filmed in southern Israel and Budapest, also deals with the anti-war and anti-Israel sentiment outside of the country.

In a sense, viewers are anxious to understand what unfolded for the team of fighters on October 7, and it takes until episodes 7 and 8 to gain that understanding.

Those episodes are exactly what the producers warned: intense, traumatic, and vivid reminders of what happened that day, seen through the eyes of the undercover agents who make up the “Fauda” team as they work to apprehend Palestinian terrorists.

Raz and Issacharoff had the benefit of hindsight, knowing what unfolded on October 7, when thousands of Hamas terrorists smashed through the border fence into Israel, killing some 1,200 people and abducting 251 adults and children from kibbutz communities, army bases and the Nova desert rave into Gaza.

The “Fauda” episodes touch on much of what happened: the raids and massacres of those in the kibbutzim, and the attempts of Nova partygoers to flee rockets and terrorists in the fields, glades, and sites around the party rave, all as the special agents themselves find themselves fighting an invasion they never anticipated.

The episodes show some of the intensive battles of that day, and the heroic efforts of Israeli police, army, and special units that were present and attempted to staunch the flow of Hamas terrorists into Israel.

There is a disturbingly real sense of disbelief as Doron, Eli and Steve witness and fight the Hamas invasion, particularly as agents who have “seen everything” in their line of work.

Even more disturbing is the portrayal of a team of terrorists in one storyline throughout the two episodes, as they enter one kibbutz home and slowly draw out its residents over many hours by burning the door of the safe room.

Of the many portrayals of Hamas terrorists already created on film and TV, the “Fauda” episodes feel particularly personal and authentic, and what viewers have come to expect from Raz and Issacharoff, the award-winning team that based their work on their real-life experiences as undercover agents.

Reactions among reviewers have been mixed, with some Hebrew media praising the show for its performances and cinematography, and others saying that the writing is lacking and the imagery too painful.

Israeli viewers, however, were mostly appreciative on social media of the season’s immediacy and sense of reality, recommending that the producers translate it into multiple languages to ensure that viewers worldwide understand what happened on October 7.