After playing a Nukhba terrorist in the two shocking episodes of 'Fauda,' Rawad Azar talks about the sleepless nights, the friends who were kidnapped from Kfar Aza, the threats he received online and why, for him, taking on such a role is a missionIt is not every day that a series creator turns to viewers and recommends that they avoid watching certain episodes. When the production of “Fauda” chose to issue an unusual content warning for episodes 7 and 8 of the current season and even took care to clarify that viewers who wish can skip them and still follow the storyline, it was clear this was not just another set of standard undercover action scenes. These two episodes, aired this week on Yes, recreate the horror of October 7 and touch on the most painful and open Israeli wound of recent decades.Rawad Azar, a 37-year-old Israeli Arab actor, has previously played many roles as terrorists, criminals and other unsavory characters — “dirty work, but someone has to do it,” as he puts it — but even he felt shaken at the prospect of portraying a Nukhba terrorist from October 7 in “Fauda.”GalleryRawad Azar (left) with Avi Issacharoff, on the set of 'Fauda'(Photo: Private)“It was not easy,” he admits. “There were nights I did not sleep. Just thinking about what these people did is already psychological trauma for an actor, and I have to get into it and be that. It felt too close because two of my friends were kidnapped — Gali and Ziv Berman — who we worked with in "Festigal." They were returned in the latest hostage deal and I kept seeing their brother and their aunt.”“On October 7 I called my friends from Kfar Aza, and a friend said on the phone, ‘bro, tell everyone they are killing people here, shooting everyone’ — and hung up. I did not sleep for a few days. At that time I worked in a ‘intervention force’ role at parties like Nova (a rapid-response unit deployed for emergencies and extreme incidents). We are there in case of threats, fights or anything else, and we intervene. They offered me to work at Nova but because I had a new play at the time I said to them, ‘no, leave it, I want to build my career as an actor,’ and I did not go. The play saved my life. Maybe it is a sign God is telling me that this is my path.”Did filming exhaust you emotionally?