More than 1,000 days have passed since Hamas terrorists crossed the Gaza border on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages into Gaza. While all of the hostages have since returned, the attack continues to shape Israeli society, politics, and culture.
As Israelis continue to grapple with the trauma of that day, the Paramount+ miniseries “Red Alert” aims to preserve the stories of the victims, survivors, and ordinary people whose lives were forever changed. For producer Lawrence Bender, director and co-creator Lior Chefetz, and actor Miki Leon, telling those stories was about more than making television. It was about documenting history while it was still painfully fresh.
Read more: The best movies and TV shows that keep the memory of October 7 alive
During production, however, history refused to stay in the past.
Bender, the acclaimed producer behind films including “Pulp Fiction” and “Inglourious Basterds,” found himself rushing into a bomb shelter after a Houthi missile fired from Yemen triggered air raid sirens in Tel Aviv.
“I was bubbling with emotion because I’ve never been involved with someone shooting an intercontinental ballistic missile in your direction,” Bender said. “It’s a real thing. If it hits you, you’re dead. I started to almost cry. It was a strange feeling. They said, ‘It’s a normal reaction. We are just used to it.’”
The creator first said no, then said yes
Director and co-creator Chefetz had only recently completed the theatrical release of “The Stronghold,” a drama about the 1973 Yom Kippur War starring Michael Aloni and Daniel Gad, best known for “Shtisel” and “Shababnikim.” When Hamas launched its October 7 attack, Chefetz initially assumed the rocket barrage was a limited escalation, perhaps in response to the killing of a Hamas leader, not the beginning of a massive cross-border invasion.
Three weeks later, producer Ruth Efroni approached him about creating a drama based on the attacks. At first, he turned her down.
“There were similarities between the two projects, and I was so overwhelmed by the atrocities of October 7,” Chefetz said. “I couldn’t even bring myself to watch the videos of it. It was too much. It was too bleak. I felt hopeless. We’ve been in a conflict with Palestinians for many years, but the scale of horrors of what the ones who invaded were capable of took us by surprise. The terrorists were full-on monsters. We were striving to reach peace. It was earth-shattering.”
Two months later, Efroni approached him again. This time, Chefetz agreed to join the project as co-creator.
He said everyone has a role to play in the aftermath of tragedy, and for him, that role was storytelling. The chance to document what happened and honor the victims and survivors was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up.
Premiering in Israel on the second anniversary of the attacks under the Hebrew title “First Light,” a reference to the dawn timing of the assault, the four-part series became the second scripted drama about October 7 to air, following 2024’s “One Day in October.” Chefetz said there was public debate over whether it was too soon to dramatize the attacks, but viewers embraced the series. According to Keshet 12, “Red Alert” became the network’s most-watched program in a decade.
Didn’t want graphic carnage on screen or off
Filming “Red Alert” in southern Israel presented challenges that extended far beyond the production itself. With the war still underway, the crew had to take extraordinary precautions to ensure that scenes depicting Hamas terrorists were not mistaken for a real attack.
Bender said the production coordinated closely with local police and relied on drones, bright safety vests, flyers, and bullhorns to alert nearby residents that filming was taking place.
“We had fliers, bright vests, bullhorns, and drones to let people know it was only a show,” Bender said. “We were still very much afraid civilians might see an actor dressed as a terrorist and shoot him. We managed to prevent that from happening.”
Even with those precautions, reminders of the ongoing war were unavoidable.
Bender said the cast and crew watched Israeli air defenses intercept rockets overhead during production, though thankfully none landed near the set.
Chefetz said filming lasted 10 months. Although the series depicts the violence of October 7, he deliberately avoided lingering on graphic images.
“There were so many horrific images and videos online,” Chefetz said. “Hamas had GoPros and live-streamed. If they want to watch the murder, it’s available. We wanted to tell stories of heroes and show faces of characters and have the horror happen out of the frame.”
What it’s like to portray someone who was murdered on October 7
Miki Leon has built a career playing tough, resilient characters. In “Red Alert,” however, he portrays a real person: Ohad Yahalomi, who was kidnapped from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023. He was 49. His body was returned to Israel on February 27, 2025, and Israeli officials believe he was murdered while in Hamas captivity.
(Photo Courtesy of Gefen Productions, Bender Brown Productions, Keshet 12, The IEF and Paramount+)
Ohad’s 12-year-old son, Eitan, was also kidnapped and taken to Gaza before being released 52 days later as part of a hostage deal. Eitan later shared his story with Montana Tucker in the documentary “The Children of October 7.” Meanwhile, Ohad’s wife, Bat Sheva, and their two daughters managed to escape after they were abducted and taken toward Gaza.
Rather than relying solely on scripts or historical accounts, Leon spent time with Bat Sheva to understand who Ohad was beyond the headlines.
“I spent a lot of time with Bat Sheva,” Leon said. “I wanted to know the little details of their relationship. What were their nicknames between them? I wanted to understand what happened from her. She’s an amazing, brave woman, and I learned a lot from talking to her.”
One of the series’s most harrowing scenes unfolds inside the family’s mamad, the reinforced safe room found in many Israeli homes. As terrorists close in, Ohad realizes he can no longer keep the door locked, a nightmare that became reality for many communities near Gaza on October 7.
“Nobody thought terrorists would come this far into the kibbutzim and into the mamads,” Leon said, referring to bomb shelters Israelis have in their homes. “The scenes in the mamad were difficult, because as an actor, you needed a balance of being very nervous but not wanting to show the nerves to the kids. Somehow, you want to reflect some security in a situation where you have none, so that part was difficult to play. The last scene when I talk to my daughter is difficult because it’s emotional, and he knows he will have to sacrifice himself.”
Leon also praised Rotem Sela, who portrays Bat Sheva, describing her preparation for the role as meticulous.
An offer they couldn’t refuse
Chefetz said authenticity was the guiding principle behind “Red Alert.” Before dramatizing any real-life story, he reached out to survivors and the families of those who were killed or kidnapped, inviting them to become collaborators in the process. They reviewed scripts and edits, met with the actors portraying them, and only after receiving their approval did Chefetz move forward with their stories.
One of the most difficult roles to cast, he said, was Tali Hadad, the Ofakim mother who ignored instructions to stay put and instead repeatedly drove into active combat zones to rescue the wounded when ambulances could not reach them. Her actions helped save 12 lives. Actress Sarit Vino-Elad ultimately took on the role.
“She was a kindergarten teacher and also a warrior,” Chefetz said of Hadad, who survived the attacks.
How “Red Alert” landed at Paramount+ and why Bender is speaking out about Hollywood
Bender credits David Ellison, CEO of Paramount Skydance Corporation, with helping bring “Red Alert” to an international audience. The two first discussed the project during a chance encounter, and after watching the first four episodes, Ellison agreed to bring the series to Paramount+.
Bender said he admired Ellison’s willingness to back the project despite what he sees as growing anti-Israel sentiment and antisemitism in parts of the entertainment industry.
The issue became especially personal following an open letter, now signed by several thousand members of the film industry, including actors Javier Bardem and Joaquin Phoenix, calling for a boycott of Israeli cultural institutions.
Bender said he felt compelled to publicly oppose the effort.
“I feel, unfortunately, there is a lot of antisemitism in Hollywood,” Bender said. “When that letter was written, I was quite upset. If you look at it rationally, there is no one in Hollywood I can imagine who is okay with the regime in Iran. They kill innocent people who wear the hijab wrong. They don’t boycott filmmakers from Iran. They give them Academy Awards. I’ve been a member of the Academy since 1995. So why would we be boycotting Israeli filmmakers? You don’t boycott Russian filmmakers. It’s clearly antisemitism. I was upset and wrote a letter against it.”
A separate letter opposing the boycott was signed by Debra Messing, Gene Simmons, Liev Schreiber, and hundreds of other entertainment figures.
Why “Red Alert” resonates
Rather than focusing on a single family or location, “Red Alert” follows several interconnected stories from October 7, moving between communities under attack, first responders racing toward danger, and ordinary civilians forced into impossible decisions.
Rotem Sela delivers a restrained performance as Bat Sheva Yahalomi, as she desperately tries to protect her daughters while searching for answers about her husband and kidnapped son. Israel Atias portrays police officer Kobi, who fights Hamas terrorists while searching for his wounded wife, Nofar, a police officer evacuating survivors from the Nova Music Festival. Chen Amsalem Zaguri plays Nofar, while Hisham Suliman portrays Ayoub, an Israeli Arab father determined to save his infant son as violence engulfs his community.
Some of the series’s most emotionally devastating moments come not from graphic violence but from its quiet humanity: Ohad Yahalomi’s final moments with his family, Bat Sheva’s encounter with Israeli soldiers after surviving the attack, and Tali Hadad’s reunion with her wounded son, Itamar.
The series moves between multiple timelines without losing its emotional focus, gradually revealing how the lives of its characters intersect throughout the day. By emphasizing intimate human stories over graphic imagery, “Red Alert” illustrates the personal cost of October 7 while avoiding sensationalism.
The title itself carries additional meaning. In Israel, “Tzeva Adom,” or “Red Alert,” is the warning announced when incoming rockets are detected. While tzeva literally means “color” in Hebrew, Tzeva Adom has become synonymous with the air raid alerts that have shaped daily life for Israelis living under rocket fire.
What they hope people will take away from “Red Alert”
For Chefetz, “Red Alert” was never just about dramatizing October 7. He hopes the series gives viewers a clearer understanding of what happened that day and the conflict that followed.
“October 7 was the inciting incident,” he said. “We worked hard to tell the story as truthfully as possible. Hopefully, as people watch it, it can give them more tools to understand the conflict. We hope for a resolution as soon as possible. When you have Hamas, whose agenda is to destroy Israel and kill Jews, you must remove this element if you want a just and lasting solution for peace.”
For Bender, the experience became deeply personal. During production, he spent nearly every Saturday night in Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square, where families and supporters gathered to advocate for the release of those still held in Gaza. He said countless people shared with him how October 7 had forever changed their lives.
“When we were filming, there were still hostages in the tunnels,” Bender said. “When you watch the series, you can’t help but have an emotional reaction.”
For Leon, the series is ultimately about preserving the memory of the people behind the headlines. Portraying Ohad Yahalomi, a father who confronted armed terrorists outside his family’s safe room with only a handgun, left a lasting impression on him.
“I hope that through this series, the memory of Ohad, a great man, lives,” Leon said.
