‘Fauda’ in real life: Israeli Netflix star released from hospital after war injuries

Israeli Netflix star (“Fauda”) and singer Idan Amedi have been released from hospital after being seriously injured during the Gaza war. The 35-year-old was injured in an explosion about two weeks ago and was taken by helicopter to a hospital near Tel Aviv.

After his release, Amedi told journalists on Thursday about the incident in which he lost six comrades.

“I arrived here burned and covered in soot, in an induced coma and on a ventilator,” Amedi said when he was admitted to hospital. “I couldn’t be identified; a piece of paper said ‘Unknown 22-year-old’.”

According to media reports, Amedi, an engineering reservist, was injured in an explosion in a tunnel shaft. “The things we found there robbed us of sleep,” Amedi said, his left arm in a bandage. He spoke of the “size and depth of the tunnel system and the special weapons we found there.”

The plan was to blow up a tunnel area and weapons there on January 8. For reasons still unclear, an explosion occurred. Amedi tearfully apologized to his deceased comrades.

The actor became known worldwide through the series “Fauda”. There he plays the agent Sagi Zur in an anti-terrorist unit of the Israeli domestic secret service Shin Bet.

Another “Fauda” crew member died in a booby trap during an operation in the Gaza Strip last November.

Matan Meir, 38, a member of the production team of ‘Fauda’, was one of four soldiers killed by a booby-trapped tunnel shaft next to a mosque in the Beit Hanoun area. The soldiers were not in the tunnel.

The series ‘Fauda’ (2015), available on Netflix, focuses on the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. The third season (of a total of five so far) is set in the Gaza Strip and also focuses on the Hamas tunnels.

The main character of the successful series is Doron Kabilio, played by the Israeli actor Lior Raz (51), who was also closely involved in the production of the six seasons so far as a screenwriter. He also plays a counter-terrorism specialist and was also a member of an Israeli special forces unit in real life. And Raz also joined the Israeli army after the attack by the terrorist organization Hamas on October 7, 2023 and was deployed in the city of Sderot to evacuate residents there.

(dsc/sda/dpa)