A female Israeli soldier. Photo: Reuters / IDF.

The filmmaking team behind Israel’s submission to the best international film category of the 2024 Academy Awards is working on a movie inspired by the true story of an all-female Israel Defense Force (IDF) tank unit that engaged in combat against Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7 in southern Israel.

Jewish-Israeli director Ayelet Menahemi, whose comedic drama Seven Blessings will compete in this year’s Oscars, is directing the film, and writer-actress Eleanor Sela, who wrote and starred in Seven Blessings, is writing the script, according to Deadline. The film will be produced by Ehud Bleiberg’s Los Angeles-based Bleiberg Entertainment (In the Land of Saints, The Band’s Visit) and Ronen Ben Tal, who also worked on Seven Blessings. Filming is expected to begin in fall 2024.

The female tank unit that defended Israel against the Hamas massacre that took place on Oct. 7 marked the first time in history that an all-female armored unit took part in combat, Deadline reported. The filmmakers told the publication they will also highlight in their new film the unit’s founding and how the women soldiers had to fight to be respected by male soldiers in the IDF, who sometimes discriminated against the female unit.

“Amidst the inconceivable stories of bravery since October 7, this is one of the exceptional and heroic ones,” Menahemi and Sela said in a joint statement. “It shows what happens when women take matters into their own hands after men cast doubt on their right and ability to fight. These young women made history, twice.”

The IDF said in November that a group of female tank operators, young women in their early 20s from the Paran Brigade who fought in active battle against Hamas on Oct. 7, killed roughly 50 terrorists during 17 hours of continuous combat and helped to clear out terrorists from the kibbutz of Holit. Meanwhile, Israeli Caracal commander Lt.-Col. Or Ben-Yehuda told The Jerusalem Post that her battalion, made up of mostly female soldiers, killed around 100 Hamas terrorists during the terror group’s deadly rampage on Oct. 7, in which 1,200 people were murdered and 240 taken as hostages to Gaza.