‘Beautiful reflection of sacrifice for those we love’ – Fauda creators announce Oct 7 film

Maj Gen Tibon rescued his family and members of his Kibbutz when Hamas fighters descended on Oct 7 - JONAS OPPERSKALSKI/LAIF

The first major film about the Oct 7 massacre has been announced by Lior Raz and Avi Issacharoff, the creators of the Netflix drama, Fauda.

The film will be based on the real-life story of a retired major general who left his home in Tel Aviv to rescue his son and grandchildren and ended up helping to save an entire kibbutz.

The story of Noam Tibon is one of the rare positive stories from a day of horror.

The massive security failure that allowed Hamas terrorists to invade Southern Israel, meant many individual heroes including Maj Gen Tibon were called upon to risk their own lives as the army struggled to cope with the scale of the invasion.

Few of them survived.

“It is a great honour that my story will be told by Israel’s best screenwriters,” Maj Gen Tibon told The Telegraph. “I feel proud and really thankful that they wanted to do it. They are brilliant at what they do and it means that they will present this very black day in all the right colours.”

‘There are terrorists outside the house’

Maj Gen Tibon, a highly decorated soldier who was the senior commander of the Israeli paratroopers, was swimming in the sea near his home in Tel Aviv with his wife Gali on the morning of Oct 7 when they first heard rocket attacks overhead.

Hamas pounded Israel with rockets as thousands of the terrorists staged an invasion.

At first the pair decided to keep swimming and only got to their car at 7.15am. There, Maj Gen Tibon found a message from his son Amir, a journalist who lived in Kibbutz Nahal Oz on the border with Gaza, which read: “There are terrorists in Nahal Oz.”

Maj Gen Tibon told Amir to lock the house and stay silent in the safe room, and that he was on his way.

The pair rushed home with Maj Gen Tibon picking up his revolver, determined to rescue his son. His wife agreed to drive the pair’s jeep while he tried to work out what was going on.

“I was phoning all of the heads of the military and nobody was picking up,” he recalls.

Another message from Amir arrived: “Dad, I think there is a terrorist inside the house.”

The creators Lior Raz and Avi Issacharoff are previously known for their Netflix series Fauda

Terrorists were just outside, as they targeted Amir’s next-door neighbour who was the head of the kibbutz security.

“We were the only vehicle on the road and were speeding like hell,” recalls Maj Gen Tibon. “Until, just outside Sderot, we met the war. We saw something like you see on TV shows or movies.

“There were policemen shooting from both sides and there was a white Toyota filled with terrorists coming at them. Bullets were flying everywhere.”

As they stopped, they saw a young couple running towards them, having managed to escape the terrorists at the Nova Festival. Torn between moving on towards Nahal Oz and rescuing these two young people – Bar and Lior Matsner – they felt they had no choice but to help.

They drove the pair to a police station in the nearest city of Ashkelon, and then drove on.

Twice the pair were stopped by police blockades but Ms Tibon said: “It’s our son, it’s our granddaughters, if you want you can shoot me but we are going.”

Amir, meanwhile, text asking:  “Dad, where is the military?”

“I realised there was no military,” said Noam, who describes the attacks as “the biggest failure in the State of Israel’s history”.

‘Grandpa is here’

Finally at Nahal Oz, Maj Gen Tibon, now joined by one IDF soldier and a small young group of paratroopers, saw a gun battle between the IDF and terrorists.

Maj Gen Tibon, who managed to hit several terrorists after taking a dead IDF soldier’s gun, finally reached Amir’s house at 4pm. Knocking on the door of the safe room, he said: “Amir, it’s dad.”

Galia, his youngest granddaughter, recognised his voice and called out: “Grandpa is here!”

He called it “the greatest moment of his life”.

With the kibbutz still in danger, they weren’t able to leave it until close to midnight when 150 invaders had finally been beaten back by Maj Gen Tibon, who continued to fight alongside kibbutz members, police and soldiers from the IDF.

Maj Gen Tibon and his son will work as consultants on the film, which is provisionally titled October 7, and is still in the early stages of being put together.

Raz and Issacharoff, childhood friends who based Fauda on their own experiences in the IDF, said: “When faced with the horrors of that fateful day, Noam Tibon immediately charged into danger to protect his family.

“His gripping story – which transcends any religion, country or conflict – beautifully reflects the sacrifices we are willing to make for those we love. We are proud to help amplify Noam’s bravery and provide some hope and inspiration during these difficult times.”

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