Israeli television drama Fauda has become the most-watched show on Netflix in Lebanon and broken into the platform’s top ten in several other Arab and Muslim countries, despite its latest season centred on the Hamas-led October 7 attacks.
The fifth season of the hit series climbed to number one in Lebanon just two days after its international release on Netflix on September 8, according to streaming rankings compiled by FlixPatrol.
Elsewhere in the region, it ranks sixth in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, eighth in Bahrain and Qatar, ninth in Egypt, and tenth in Turkey, Morocco and Oman.
The show, which follows an elite Israeli undercover counter-terrorism unit, has also broken into Netflix’s top ten in dozens of countries worldwide.
The success is particularly striking given the subject matter of the new season, which is the first to have been made since the October 7 attacks.
The series includes a two-part flashback depicting the Hamas assault, accompanied by a viewer warning because of the nature of the scenes.
Season five follows Doron Kavillio, played by co-creator Lior Raz, as he struggles with trauma following October 7 and becomes embroiled in a revenge mission that develops into a dangerous undercover operation in Marseille.
Co-creator Avi Issacharoff has said the new season seeks to explore questions about revenge and the cycle of violence following October 7.
“Is the revenge worth it? Is continuing this very endless cycle of bloodshed [worth it]?” he told Netflix ahead of the international launch.
The season, which first aired in Israel in May, is available internationally in Arabic, Hebrew, French and English.
Fauda, created by Raz and Issacharoff, first aired in Israel in 2015 before becoming one of the country’s biggest international television successes.
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