“You have to stay focused, like a surgeon: understand the wound, dissect it, but don’t fall apart,” said Lior Chefetz, who wrote and directed Red Alert, as he spoke about the sensitivity required when making this moving and suspenseful series that dramatizes the events of October 7. The series is currently showing in Israel on Keshet 12 and around the world on Paramount+.
Chefetz, who also directed a superb movie about the Yom Kippur War, 2023’s The Stronghold, and the television series of the same name based on it, was a combat medic instructor in the army and studied medicine before turning to filmmaking, so he knows something about wounds.
But while his medical background may have helped, nothing could have prepared him to tell these harrowing stories from the massacre. Chefetz recalled that he was preparing for the October premiere of The Stronghold series, which was set to mark 50 years since the outbreak of that war, when the new war broke out.
Red Alert tells five true stories from October 7, some of which are connected: Bat Sheva Yahalomi (Rotem Sela) is a mother forced to flee with her two daughters as her son is taken into Gaza, after her husband (Miki Leon), is wounded protecting them; Ayoub (Hisham Suleiman), is a father who loses his wife and is forced to hide with his baby near the terrorists; Nofar (Chen Amsalem), a Border Police officer at the Nova music festival is wounded while defending others, alongside her colleague (Rotem Abuhav); Kobi (Israel Atias), a counterterrorism officer runs directly into hell to save his wife; and Tali (Sara Vino-Elad), a devoted mother in Ofakim, becomes an unlikely hero while searching for her injured son, Itamar (Nevo Katan).
When the war broke out, Chefetz was simply trying to absorb the extent of the tragedy and didn’t think at first of portraying it on screen. He recalled, “During the first two weeks of the war... there was no kindergarten, our daughter was at home, sirens all the time. Then [series co-creator] Ruth Efroni from Green Productions reached out and said, ‘Let’s meet, I have an idea.’ I told her I couldn’t even imagine approaching the topic – everything was happening in real time. At that point, I was avoiding the news – I’d only read headlines, no videos, no photos. It was too much. A month later, in November, they called again. By December, they said, ‘We have an Excel sheet – about a hundred stories we found compelling. If you want to look through them...’”
As he did, he said, “I started to find strength – the ability to process the horror through storytelling.”
He and his team had some guidelines from the beginning. “We wanted variety: kibbutzim, small farming communities, and also the towns like Ofakim or Sderot, plus the roads and the Nova festival. From the start, we knew we didn’t want military stories. We wanted civilian stories – ordinary people thrown into impossible situations.”
While two of the characters are a married couple who are both in the police and find themselves fighting separate battles, Chefetz said, “We decided early on that the army wouldn’t be part of this series. The burden of that day fell on civilians, and we wanted to show how they faced it.”
Another character, Ayoub, is a Bedouin. “It was also essential for us to show a Muslim family caught in the crossfire – to make it clear this wasn’t only about Jews being targeted. The terrorists murdered everyone they encountered, including many Thai agricultural workers. Representation mattered.”
There were other criteria that came into play: “Dramatically, we looked for stories with a strong structure – a hero, a goal – survival – as well as obstacles and decisive action. That’s what keeps viewers engaged. Some real stories were moving but passive; they didn’t fit the classic arc, so we couldn’t use them... We also wanted stories with at least a glimmer of hope... We wanted to highlight values – humanity facing darkness. Acts of grace, courage, self-sacrifice – people helping neighbors and even strangers. In those extreme circumstances, that’s the face of humanity we wanted to show.”
Portraying the stories of October 7 survivors
THE CREATORS got the permission from the survivors whose stories they portrayed and invited them to advise on the creation of the series. “We met with survivors, interviewed them multiple times, and visited the actual sites. For example, Tali Hadad walked us through her neighborhood – every step, where she stopped, whom she met, who she rescued. We retraced it all on foot...
“Bat-Sheva Yahalomi told us the best way to tell her story was to stand where it happened. We met in her deserted house in Kibbutz Nir Oz – everything frozen in time since October 7. Plates still on the table, toys on the floor, bullet holes everywhere. It was like entering a private memorial. She showed us where they hid, where they were shot, where her husband fell. You could still see bloodstains on the walls. She wanted us to understand spatially how it unfolded.
“In another story – the police couple – our cinematographer and I lay on our backs in the same field where they had hidden, seeing what they saw. Sometimes we filmed at the real locations – like the scene with the civilian van under fire. We even found real shell casings scattered on the ground. Survivors joined us on set to position actors correctly.”
Having dramatized a story from the Yom Kippur War had some similarities to making Red Alert. “Surprisingly, the emotional intensity was similar. When I met families of soldiers who fell in the Yom Kippur War, the pain was still raw – even after 50 years. The difference is that October 7 survivors are still in shock. They haven’t had time to process it yet. For some, participating in the series helped them heal – revisiting what happened from the outside gave them perspective. For me, it was about balancing emotion and professionalism. My years as a paramedic helped.”
There were many moments on the set that stirred emotion. “Working with the real people was the most emotional part. We promised them accuracy – no propaganda, just their truth.”
The series was co-written by Kineret Peled and Idan Hubel, and was produced by Keshet Media Group and multiple Academy Award-nominee Lawrence Bender (Pulp Fiction, Inglourious Basterds) with Green Productions and the Jewish National Fund USA Israel Entertainment Fund (IEF).
Chefetz said he was always aware that the series would be shown abroad and would need to speak to international audiences as well as Israeli ones, which brought up some complex issues. “For Israelis, we wanted to avoid excess blood and graphic violence; they already know the horror. For international viewers, though, we had to make sure they understood the scale of the massacre.
“So we struck a balance: We show bodies only from a distance, or as reflections, or through contextual hints. The emotion comes through faces, not gore. International audiences who saw early screenings said they completely understood what had happened – they didn’t need more. That confirmed we’d found the right tone.”
Chefetz feels that the series will work for all audiences. “I hope it’s more than a TV show – that it becomes a way to inform and connect people. Even viewers who support the Palestinian cause should know the context. Being informed is good for everyone... I believe Red Alert can bridge understanding – to remind people around the world what civilians endured, and how humanity can still shine through unimaginable darkness.”