“This one could easily cut you in half,” my guide said, brandishing a jagged piece of rocket shrapnel on his front lawn. He lifted another shard of rusted metal. “This bit can go through a wall—it’s flying at 1,000 kilometres an hour.” Finally, he pointed to the mangled engine of a Hezbollah rocket, its serrated edges like a shark’s mouth. “That,” he said, “is what’s going to be falling on your head from 100 metres up.”
The serene setting of Kibbutz Metsuva, just two kilometres from Israel’s border with Lebanon, seemed at odds with such a grim demonstration. Birds chirped in the trees, and cats wandered lazily through sun-dappled streets. Yet the stillness carried an unnerving weight. Scattered remnants—a surfboard leaning against a wall, a key left in a front door, a lone tricycle sitting in a yard—hinted at lives suddenly upended by the threat of war.
Emptied homes in Metsuva reflect a broader reality for Israelis, who are accustomed to living on the edge between tranquillity and danger. As one doctor put it, the country is “like a nice villa in a jungle.” Gesturing toward Israel’s borders, he described the constant threats to a nation that, since its founding, has been built to be a “fortress.”
Over the summer, my colleague Alex and I travelled across Israel to meet the men and women who man the ramparts of that fortress. Soldiers, doctors, politicians, and terror survivors shared their stories with us while we filmed whatever we could. These vignettes became the foundation for Guardians of Israel, a documentary exploring the current conflict through the eyes of those living it.
We began filming as tensions with Hezbollah began to escalate. “We will send Lebanon back to the Stone Age,” one Israeli official told me when I asked what might come next. As Gaza lay in ruins, this did not feel like idle talk. It became clear that the fate of Israelis displaced from the north—70,000 of whom have yet to return home—would shape the course of the war.
Journalist and documentary maker Michael Murphy
In Metsuva, Ishai, head of security for an area that once housed 35,000 people, gave us a tour of the emptied kibbutz. It felt like an abandoned army barracks. Outside one home, a dog sat patiently, staring down the entrance path. “We look after the dogs and cats that have been left behind,” Ishai explained as the dog watched us. “He’s waiting for them to come back.”
Small, poignant moments like the dog’s silent vigil encapsulate a human dimension of the conflict that is often overshadowed. While October 7 and the devastation in Gaza have dominated headlines, the ongoing displacement and uncertainty facing Israelis in towns like Metsuva remains largely untold. Guardians of Israel sought to bring these lesser-known aspects of the war to light.
Elsewhere, life carried on—soldiers drilled on Tel Aviv’s beaches as joggers and paddle players basked in the sun. People checked in on one another, and spontaneous acts of kindness greeted terror survivors. We hope the film conveys something of this sense of resilience and unity, which at times felt infectious.
The horrors of October 7 and the devastation in Gaza have dominated headlines. Our film sought to shine a light on under reported aspects of the conflict
Since October 7, a mindset has taken hold: losing this war could mean the end of Israel itself. “There are only two options: win or lose, exist or disappear. It’s easy,” Boaz Bismuth of the Likud party told me when I asked about Israel’s loosely defined war aims. This binary thinking has galvanised Israelis to rise to a contest many believe leaves no middle ground—and room for only one victor.
Now, as Hezbollah reels from heavy losses and the battered remnants of its leadership agree to a ceasefire, the question remains whether the displaced residents of places like Metsuva will return. Northern towns sit in limbo, and residents are reluctant to come back without a guarantee of lasting safety. For them, the ceasefire is not a resolution—it is a fragile hope.
Guardians of Israel captures the personal stories of a nation fighting for what it believes are the highest stakes. From terror survivors and citizen-soldiers to abandoned pets and emptied streets, the film reveals the human cost and courage behind the conflict.
• Watch Guardians of Israel (Outpost Studios) HERE
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