Yuval Raphael visiting the Nova Music Festival Site, 3 years later, October, 7, 2026 | Photo: Yuval Raphael's Facebook Account | Used Under Fair Use for News Reporting
Yuval Raphael survived the October 7 Nova festival massacre by lying motionless for hours.
Only 11 of the 40 to 50 people in her shelter lived.
She told her story to the Knesset and the UN Human Rights Council.
She won HaKokhav HaBa in January 2025 and represented Israel at Eurovision.
Her message on October 7, 2026: "We will continue to choose life."
Most people who hear Yuval Raphael's story for the first time go quiet, and that reaction makes sense. At 24, she carried shrapnel in her head and leg and a memory few could imagine, yet she ended up singing for millions of people across Europe. Here is how she got there.
The Shelter at Nova
On the morning of October 7, 2023, Yuval was at the Nova desert festival near Re'im when sirens sounded and gunmen stormed the site. She and dozens of other young people crowded into a small roadside bomb shelter. Within minutes, Hamas fighters found them and began firing and throwing grenades inside.
Her father, Zvika, reached her by phone while she whispered that bodies were piled on top of her. He told her to stop breathing, play dead, and not move. That instruction saved her life.
Eight Hours Without Moving
She lay still for eight hours, soaked in blood, while the attackers returned about 20 times to shoot anyone who stirred. Of the 40 to 50 people in that shelter, 11 survived.
When Israeli forces finally arrived, the survivors were too frightened to believe it was over. Yuval stepped into the daylight only after rescuers called out a name. She was alive, with shrapnel still lodged in her head and leg. She was alive, but everything about her life had changed.
Choosing to Speak
PTSD and survivor's guilt followed her home. She could have withdrawn from public life, and few would have blamed her. She chose to testify before the Knesset, address the UN Human Rights Council, and travel through Europe and the United States so that the human story behind the headlines would be heard.
"I am not here to make political statements," she told the UN. "I am here to open my heart." Jewish tradition teaches that saving a single life is like saving an entire world, and every person who listens to her carries a piece of that world forward.
From HaKokhav HaBa to Basel
Music became one of her strongest tools for healing. Producers of Israel's singing competition TV show HaKokhav HaBa found her on social media and invited her to compete, and she waited until she felt ready before saying yes. In January 2025 she won, which earned her a place at Eurovision in Basel, Switzerland.
Her song, "New Day Will Rise," was written by Keren Peles, and its lyrics hold grief and hope in the same breath: "The darkness will fade, all the pain will pass, but we will stay." Yuval had pushed for that song personally after recording several finalists.
Standing on the Stage
Her appearance drew boycott calls and tightened rules about anything that could be labeled political. Yuval trained for boos and hostile questions, then walked out to perform with the poise of a queen. She had said she wanted to stand there wrapped in the Israeli flag so the world could hear her story, and she did exactly that.
Israel finished second overall in 2025, and the public vote in Europe put her at the very top. Such numbers tell their own story about how many people were listening.
"We Will Continue to Choose Life"
On October 7, 2026, three years after the massacre, Yuval wrote: "Thank you to this nation that showed me survival. How do you rise from the brokenness? Faith, love, and unity... We will continue to choose life, because that is who we are."
The Torah tells Israel to choose life, and she has answered that command every day since the shelter. Her story belongs to anyone who believes evil never gets the final word, so share it with someone who hasn't heard it yet.
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