Lior Raz (center) with the cast of Fauda. Photo: Provided.

The opening episode of the third season of the Israeli drama “Fauda” got around one million views over the weekend, in its first 48 hours of availability, according to Israeli media outlets quoting the Yes satellite cable provider.

The show which centers around an elite Israeli counter-terrorism squad and its Palestinian rivals, has garnered attention from all over the world since its first two seasons aired on Netflix with options for subtitles in multiple languages.

The record numbers of the third season’s premier include the original live broadcast of the episode on the Yes Action channel, as well as Yes VOD, and the Yes YouTube channel.

The show aired on Thursday evening in Israel, with a viewer rating of 12.6%, relatively high compared to other simultaneous network specials, but the subsequent digital views sent those numbers skyrocketing.

As of Sunday, according to Yes, the episode already had close to 800,000 views on the company’s YouTube channel alone.

The first season of “Fauda,” created by journalist Avi Issacharoff and the series’ lead actor Lior Raz, aired in February 2015.

Season one and two both revolved around undercover counterterrorism operations in the West Bank, but promotional billboards throughout the country which read “Welcome to Gaza” in Hebrew, indicated the series would take a turn to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in the new season.

Earlier this month, The New York Times ranked “Fauda” eighth on its list of the “best international TV shows of the decade,” calling it an “absorbing, straightforward thriller… that shrewdly exploits the exigencies and emotions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its dusty, mazelike locales.” 

Another Israeli television series, “Prisoners of War,” took the list’s top spot.

Netflix has not yet announced a date for the international premier of the third season of “Fauda,” but it is expected to occur sometime in 2020.