Fauda Delivers Another Terrific Season

Revenge with a capital R is the theme of the fifth and probable final season of Fauda, the popular Israeli television show created by Lior Raz and Avi Isaacharoff and now available on the Netflix streaming platform.

Consisting of eleven episodes, and ably directed by Omri Givon, it is constructed around a date and an event that is searingly etched into Israel’s consciousness.

On October 7, 2023, around 5,000 Hamas terrorists attacked kibbutzim, towns, army bases and a music festival in southern Israel near the Gaza Strip. Roughly 1,200 civilians and soldiers were killed and 251 were abducted as hostages, the worst single atrocity against Jews since the Holocaust. Two weeks later, Israel invaded Gaza, sparking what would be a two-year war during which 73,000 Palestinians, including more than 20,000 Hamas combatants, were killed.

This catastrophe halted the production of further Fauda episodes. While its first four seasons were about an Israeli army unit tasked with rooting out terrorism in the West Bank and Gaza, the current series focuses on the aftermath of October 7.

The operative word here is tha’ar, an Arabic word denoting vengeance. On the one hand, an Israeli Bedouin seeks to avenge the death of his son, who was murdered by Hamas gunmen. On the other hand, a Hamas cell in Marseille, France, plots to wreak vengeance on Israel for its air and land campaign in Gaza. Added to the explosive mix is a French Catholic woman who wants to avenge the death of her husband, a Hamas operative killed by Israel.

Once again, the chief character is Doron Kavillio (Raz), a tough, seasoned and usually dishevelled Israeli commando who is inexorably drawn into the latest operation targeting Hamas. Doron enters the picture after Salem (Byan Anteer), an Israeli Bedouin, recruits Doron’s comrade-in-arms, Eli (Yaakov Zada Daniel), to hunt down the Hamas gunman who killed his son, Yusef. Eli, too, is consumed by vengeance, his wife and children having been murdered by Hamas on October 7.

In Marseille, a city with a substantial Arab population, Salem and Eli are laser focused on finding the Hamas killer. These scenes are tense and riveting.

Gabi (Itzik Cohen), a senior Shin Bet official, instructs Doron to monitor their movements. Doron, having been treated by a psychiatrist after October 7, reluctantly accepts the assignment. After arriving in Marseille, he stumbles upon a scene of carnage in a Palestinian restaurant targeted by Salem and Eli.

Doron, portrayed by Raz with an alluring mixture of passion and restraint, agrees to help Eli find Maher Zeytoun (Amjad Bader), the Hamas commander who supposedly defiled Eli’s wife and murdered their children. Invariably intense, Daniel is consistently effective in this pivotal role.

Much to Doron’s and Eli’s surprise, Zeytoun claims he is a Shin Bet informant. His blonde French wife, Anne (Melanie Laurent), a European convert to the Palestinian cause, is not privy to this confidential information. This adds a layer of ambiguity to the narrative, especially after Dana (Meirav Shimrom), a Shin Bet agent, flies to Marseille to protect her Palestinian asset.

Based on Zeytoun’s intelligence, Dana believes that Hamas is planning to launch a retaliatory attack in Israel on the scale of October 7. Hamas’ soft-spoken leader in Marseille, Saeed Al-Hatib (Hakim Djaziri), is working tirelessly to achieve this objective. Djaziri is excellent as Hatib.

Steve (Doron Ben-David), another Fauda regular, turns up. Ben-David delivers a fine performance. His task is to assist Doron and Eli, who have been ordered to disable Hatib’s operation. In pursuit of this goal, they masquerade as Arabs and infiltrate the local Hamas branch. Having gained Hatib’s trust, they are invited to participate in his forthcoming Al Aqsa terrorist operation in Israel.

Episodes seven and eight, which dwell on October 7, are the most graphic and blood-soaked moments in the series. As that horrific day unfolds, Hamas rockets streak across the sky, while terrorists breach the high-tech border fence and launch attacks on kibbutzim. Doron and Steve race to the border in their vehicle, passing a gut-wrenching landscape of burning cars and corpses strewn on roads.

At Eli’s kibbutz, his wife, Hagit, braces for the worst. Yusuf, Salem’s son, tries to calm her down as a group of armed terrorists try to break down the door of their shelter. In an open field, the blood lust of the terrorists emerges as they shout, “Come on, guys, slaughter the Zionists.”

Chaos reigns at the music festival as Israeli civilians flee in terror and are randomly shot. Peering into a bus shelter, Doron and Steve are aghast to see the crumpled bodies of Israelis who have been riddled with bullets by Hamas.

Having established Hamas’ target on Israel’s Independence Day, Doron and Steve rush to the site to foil the terrorists, some of whom are Europeans.

October 7 exacts a psychological toll on Doron, who descends into grief as he attends the funeral of an old friend. He and his team thwart Hamas’ plot, but the trauma lingers on. The pervasive mood in Fauda is that Israel must live by the sword as it struggles to defeat an enemy like Hamas.

According to media reports, Fauda has run its course. There will be no sixth season. But Fauda, expertly written and photographed, can live on its laurels. It has been a terrific ride.