Survivors of the October 7 massacre will travel with Israel's Eurovision contestant, Yuval Raphael, to the 2025 competition in Switzerland, Walla reported this week.
The survivors accompanying Raphael are afraid to reveal their names for safety and security reasons. It should be noted that the survivors are not an official part of the delegation, but are accompanying it.
One of the survivors who will join Raphael told Walla: "I am very excited to be with Yuval and represent Israel. I wish her the best of luck, and I know it will be very exciting."
Who is Raphael?
On October 7, 2023, Raphael arrived with some friends to celebrate at the Nova festival. After Hamas invaded, she and her friends attempted to flee by car but were unable to. Instead, they chose to hide inside a tiny roadside bomb shelter.
At least 40 people crammed into the small concrete structure to shelter from both rockets and bullets. But Hamas fighters found them within minutes and fired at the people inside.
For seven hours, Raphael lay buried under the bodies of her murdered friends, pretending to be dead as Hamas terrorists stormed in, sprayed bullets, and threw grenades at the dozens of festivalgoers hiding inside.
"I could feel the heat of the explosions, feel my body being crushed under the weight of the dead," she later told Channel 12. "I kept repeating to myself, ‘Don’t breathe. Don’t move. Stay dead.'"
In spite of rising anti-Israel sentiment in Europe, Raphael has said she is proud to represent her country: "I know some people won’t want me there," she told Israel Hayom.
"But that’s exactly why I have to go. I want to stand on that stage, wrapped in the Israeli flag, and make sure the world hears our story."