Yuval Raphael

Nova Festival · October 7, 2023

Nova festivalgoers shelter inside a roadside bomb shelter on October 7 (Itamar Shapira)

It was Yuval's first time at a big music festival.

She had spent the night dancing with friends at Nova. They were filming a video for her father just two minutes before the rockets began. (1)

We thought there would be a barrage, we’d hide—and go back to the party.

Yuval, recalling the first moments of the attack (1)

But one friend insisted they leave.

They drove toward a friend's home nearby, encountered terrorists on the road and turned back.

They spotted a small bomb shelter and went inside. (1)

Inside the Shelter

A woman Yuval didn't know held her hand and cried. Yuval tried to reassure her: they were inside a protected space and would soon go home.

Then terrorists opened fire into the crowded shelter.

When Yuval looked at the woman beside her, her head was resting on Yuval's shoulder. She had been killed. (1)

Yuval called her father and begged him to send help. She told him there were terrorists and dead people around her.

Her father urged her to hide, lie still and pretend to be dead.

Yuval later said his instructions helped her focus. She passed them to the others still alive. They had to remain silent. (2)

Their conversation while Yuval was trapped inside the shelter.

The body of another woman the terrorists had killed pinned Yuval's leg to the floor.

Whenever the terrorists returned, Yuval lifted the woman's head over her own to shield her face. (3)

The terrorists returned repeatedly, shooting people inside the shelter and throwing grenades.

Yuval remained beneath the bodies, pretending to be dead.

Between attacks, Yuval called the police. For four hours, she kept asking for help.

Each time, they told her a police car was on its way.

But no police car reached her. Instead, terrorists returned and attacked again. (3)

At my breaking point, I told myself that the next time I ask the terrorists to shoot me and kill me…

Yuval, recalling the hours inside the shelter (3)

She later explained that, unexpectedly, something about that thought freed her. (3)

As the pain in her trapped leg grew, she closed her eyes and imagined lying curled up in her mother's bed.

She also thought about singing. She pressed a long fingernail into her ear to protect her hearing from the gunfire and grenade explosions, hoping she could still sing if she got out. (3)

Rescue

When help finally arrived, Yuval and the others did not believe it was safe to move.

They thought it was another terrorist.

Then someone called out Nitzan's name. She was one of the women trapped alongside Yuval, and her father and brother had come to rescue them.

Only then did Yuval believe help had arrived. (2)(4)

Yuval emerged after about eight hours, wounded by shrapnel. To get out, she had to step over bodies. (5)(1)

Of the 51 people who had taken refuge in the shelter, only 11 survived. (5)

Yuval recounts the attack and the hours she spent inside the shelter.

After the Shelter

Long afterward, Yuval carried guilt about surviving beneath another woman's body.

Before Eurovision in 2025, she met that woman's mother.

Yuval had feared the mother would hate her. Instead, she listened, hugged Yuval and cried. (1)

Music became part of Yuval's life after the attack. She joined a songwriting workshop with other survivors. (3)

In May 2025, she stood on the Eurovision stage representing Israel and sang New Day Will Rise.

She finished second overall, with the highest public vote. (6)

Her performance of New Day Will Rise.

Yuval Raphael

Inside the Shelter

Rescue

After the Shelter

Sources

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