Fauda is about to enter territory even the hit Israeli series knows cannot be treated like another episode of television.

Ahead of two special season-five episodes based on Hamas’s October 7 massacre, yes issued an unusual warning to viewers, saying the episodes include scenes, sounds and images that may be difficult to watch. In a rare move, the company also made clear that anyone who feels the material is too heavy can skip the episodes and still continue with the season’s main plot afterward.

The warning applies to episodes 7 and 8, which are set to air back-to-back in Israel. yes said the chapters stand on their own and are not required to follow the rest of the season. “These episodes return to that terrible day,” the company said, acknowledging what many Israeli viewers already understand, this is not distant fiction.

The fifth season of Fauda was reshaped after the massacre and the war that followed. Lior Raz and Avi Issacharoff had already been working on a different storyline, but after October 7, the old version was scrapped. The new season follows Doron and the team through a darker post-October 7 reality, with revenge, trauma and a dangerous hunt tied to a Nukhba terrorist who fled abroad.

Fauda has built its name on pushing viewers into Israel’s brutal security reality, from undercover operations to Hamas and Hezbollah terror networks. But this time, the show is not only asking viewers to watch. It is also telling them they are allowed to look away.

Members of the cast and crew were personally affected by the war, and the series itself has become one of Israel’s most visible cultural exports at a time when the story of October 7 is being distorted, minimized or forgotten abroad.