Netflix television series Fauda has dedicated two standalone episodes of its fifth season to recreating the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks in southern Israel.
The fifth season of the Israeli drama reserves episodes 7 and 8 to depict the events of that morning. The series temporarily steps away from its primary narrative arc to focus on how individual characters experienced the assault.
Wednesday marks three years since the October 7 attacks took place across southern Israel, an anniversary that the show addresses through an unconventional narrative structure.
The dramatic sequence inside the seventh episode begins at dawn when unit member Eli receives an initial security alert. The story then moves forward to 6:29 a.m., the moment rocket launches begin and the situation escalates into a full scale offensive.
As the attack spreads, the story moves with main protagonist Doron Kabilio and unit colleague Steve to the surroundings of the Nova music festival. The pair encounter fleeing young people and attempt to assist those caught in the chaos.
Standalone structure for season five episodes
A distinctive feature of the two episodes is that viewers can watch them without having followed the rest of the series. The two chapters form an almost completely independent block, allowing audiences to understand the events of that day without navigating the main plot line.
The drama also focuses on events inside Eli's home, where his family becomes trapped while armed gunmen reach the kibbutz.
The main storyline that pauses at the end of episode 6 resumes in episode 9. Audiences can skip episodes 7 and 8 without losing the overall plot thread of the season, although the events of October 7 ultimately condition the remainder of the story.
Creators on dramatising recent historic events
The show's creators acknowledged the difficulties involved in recreating such a recent event. They chose to place fictional characters into situations inspired by real incidents rather than structuring the episodes as a documentary reconstruction.
Background on Fauda and the October 7 attacks
Fauda is an Israeli action drama series created by Lior Raz and Avi Issacharoff that premiered in 2015 before gaining global popularity on Netflix. The show follows an undercover Israeli counter-terrorism unit operating in the region, centered on protagonist Doron Kabilio.
The October 7, 2023 attacks involved coordinated strikes by Palestinian militant group Hamas across southern Israel. The attack targeted several kibbutz communal settlements along the Gaza border as well as the Nova music festival, an outdoor event held near Kibbutz Re'im.
