‘Fauda’ star Lior Raz describes real-life role after sister called from shelter on Oct. 7

Lior Raz, co-creator and star of "Fauda," described his real-life role during the October 7 Hamas massacre, including his sister's desperate call from a shelter and his own actions evacuating families in Sderot. He said the experience shaped the show's fifth season and was the hardest day he has ever experienced.

Lior Raz, the co-creator and star of the hit Israeli TV series "Fauda," has described his real-life role during the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacre. In an interview with the UK's Mail on Sunday, Raz recounted how he was in Romania when the attack began and only learned of it when his sister called from a bomb shelter in a kibbutz near the Gaza Strip, begging for help as terrorists prowled outside. Raz rushed back to Israel, arriving the next day, by which time his sister was already safe. On October 9, he traveled to Sderot with the Brothers in Arms organization of reservist soldiers and, under rocket fire, evacuated two families from the town that had been hit hard by Hamas. Raz said it was the hardest day he has ever experienced and that he has thought about it every day since. The experiences shaped the narrative of Fauda's fifth season, which included two episodes about October 7. Raz and co-creator Avi Issacharoff, both former members of the IDF's elite Duvdevan unit, spoke to the New York Times in September about the challenges of portraying the harsh reality without showing too much carnage. Raz called it "maybe the most important thing that we ever wrote."