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Nova Music Festival Survivor Yuval Raphael to Represent Israel at Eurovision

Yuval Raphael, a survivor of the Supernova music festival massacre on Oct. 7, 2023, will represent Israel at the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest in Basel, Switzerland, in May. Photo: Screenshot

JNS.org — Yuval Raphael, a survivor of the Supernova music festival massacre on Oct. 7, 2023, will represent Israel at the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest in Basel, Switzerland, in May.

Raphael won the finals of the “Hakochav Haba” (“Rising Star”) song contest on Jan. 22. The season-long singing competition, which is broadcast on Israel’s Channel 12, selects the country’s representative to the popular European song contest.

Raphael sealed her victory with “two unforgettable performances” in the finals: ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” and “Writing’s on the Wall” by Sam Smith, Channel 12 reported.

She said she wants to represent those who didn’t survive the massacre.

“That’s why I want to be there — for all the angels who couldn’t be here now,” Raphael told Kan Reshet Bet radio. “I got to fulfill a lifelong dream and others are left there only in the shadows. It’s the only thing left of them — this shadow still dancing. That’s why it’s crucial to represent us. That’s why I want to be there; to bring the voice forward, because it’s so important.”

Four days after the massacre, Rafael was interviewed along with other survivors by Channel 12.

“We were at a party, and around 6 am, a barrage of missiles began,” she said. “We all rushed to the car, we were five friends — two of them are currently hospitalized.

“When we got to the car, there was a crazy mass of people and vehicles trying to get out [of the festival area]. In the end, when we reached the road, we saw a [bomb] shelter, so we decided to stop on the side and enter it to protect ourselves from the [Gazan] missiles,” she said.

Raphael, 24, hid in the bomb shelter for seven hours. Hamas terrorists threw grenades into the shelter. Raphael, pretending to be dead, hid underneath the bodies of the dead. Forty young people entered the shelter at the start of the Hamas invasion. Ten left alive.

More than 360 people in total were killed at the music festival. Hamas-led terrorists murdered some 1,200 that day in a surprise attack from the Gaza Strip. They kidnapped 251.

On Wednesday and Thursday, many well-wishers congratulated her on social media.

“Mazel Tov YuvalRaphael — Israel’s next representative to the @eurovision competition and the winner of The Rising Star contest. Yuval is a Nova survivor and now she says her relationship with music has an even more emotional meaning. She’s not only telling her story of survival,” tweeted actress Noa Tishby, who served as Israel’s special envoy for combating antisemitism and delegitimization from 2022 to 2023.

The semi-final draw on Jan. 28 will determine in which Eurovision semifinal Raphael will compete, on May 13 or 15, in an effort to make it to the final on May 17.

Israel has won the Eurovision Song Contest four times: 1978, 1979, 1998 and 2018. According to Eurovision bookmakers, Belgium is the favorite this year. But since Raphael’s selection, Israel has been moved from fifth to third favorite by the oddsmakers.

The post Nova Music Festival Survivor Yuval Raphael to Represent Israel at Eurovision first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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3rd Round of Nuclear Talks Between Iran, US Concludes in Oman

Atomic symbol and USA and Iranian flags are seen in this illustration taken, September 8, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

i24 NewsThe third round of talks between Iran and the United States over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program has concluded on Saturday, US media reported.

The two sides are understood to have discussed the US lifting of sanctions on Iran, with focuses on technical and key topics including uranium enrichment.

On April 12, the US and Iran held indirect talks in Muscat, marking the first official negotiation between the two sides since the US unilaterally withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018 during President Donald Trump’s first term.

The second round of indirect talks took place in Rome, Italy, on April 19.

All parties, including Oman, stated that the first two rounds of talks were friendly and constructive, but Iranian media pointed out that the first two rounds were mainly framework negotiations and had not yet touched upon the core issues of disagreement.

According to media reports, one of the key issues in the expert-level negotiations will be whether Washington will allow Iran to continue uranium enrichment within the framework of its nuclear program. In response, Araghchi made it clear that Iran’s right to uranium enrichment is non-negotiable.

The US, Israel and other Western actors including the United Nation’s nuclear agency reject Iranian claims that its uranium enrichment is strictly civilian in its goals.

The post 3rd Round of Nuclear Talks Between Iran, US Concludes in Oman first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Hamas Says It’s Open to 5-Year Gaza Truce, One-Time Release of All Hostages

Demonstrators hold signs and pictures of hostages, as relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages kidnapped during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas protest demanding the release of all hostages in Tel Aviv, Israel, Feb. 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Itai Ron

i24 NewsThe Palestinian jihadists of Hamas said they were willing to secure an agreement with Israel that that would see them remain in charge of the enclave, a source told international media. The deal would include an internationally guaranteed five-year truce and the release of all Israeli hostages in a single batch.

The latest bid to seal a ceasefire follows an Israeli proposal which Hamas had rejected earlier in April as “partial,” urging a “comprehensive” agreement to halt the war ignited by the October 7 massacres.

Israel demands the return of all hostages seized in the 2023 attack, and the disarmament of Hamas, which the jihadists rejected as a “red line.”

An earlier Israeli offer, rejected by the Palestinian terrorists, included a 45-day ceasefire in exchange for the return of 10 living hostages.

More than a month into a renewed Israeli offensive in Gaza after a two-month truce, a Hamas official said earlier this week that its delegation in Cairo would discuss “new ideas” on a ceasefire.

The post Hamas Says It’s Open to 5-Year Gaza Truce, One-Time Release of All Hostages first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Suspected Chemical Blast at Iran’s Bandar Abbas Kills 4, Injures Hundreds

People walk after an explosion at the Shahid Rajaee port in Bandar Abbas, Iran, April 26, 2025. Photo: Mohammad Rasoul Moradi/IRNA/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

A huge blast on Saturday likely caused by the explosion of chemical materials stored at Iran’s biggest port, Bandar Abbas, killed at least four people and injured more than 500, Iranian state media reported.

The explosion, which hit the Shahid Rajaee section of the port, occurred as Iran began a third round of nuclear talks with the United States in Oman, but there was no immediate indication of a link between the two events.

Hossein Zafari, a spokesperson for Iran’s crisis management organization, appeared to blame the explosion on poor storage of chemicals in containers at Shahid Rajaee.

“The cause of the explosion was the chemicals inside the containers,” he told Iran’s ILNA news agency.

“Previously, the Director General of Crisis Management had given warnings to this port during their visits and had pointed out the possibility of danger,” Zafari said.

An Iranian government spokesperson, however, said that although chemicals had likely caused the blast, it was not yet possible to determine the exact reason.

Iran’s official news channels aired footage of a vast black and orange cloud of smoke billowing up above the port in the aftermath of the blast, and an office building with its doors blown off and papers and debris strewn around.

Bandar Abbas is Iran’s largest port and handles most of its containers in transit.

The blast shattered windows within a radius of several kilometers and was heard in Qeshm, an island 16 miles south of the port, Iranian media said.

The semi-official Tasnim news agency posted footage of injured men lying on the road being tended to amid scenes of confusion.

State TV earlier reported that poor handling of flammable materials was a “contributing factor” to the explosion. A local crisis management official told state TV that the blast took place after several containers stored at the port exploded.

As relief workers tried to put out fires, the port’s customs officials said trucks were being evacuated from the area and that the container yard where the explosion occurred likely contained “dangerous goods and chemicals.” Activities at the port were halted after the blast, officials said.

DEADLY INCIDENTS

A series of deadly incidents have hit Iranian energy and industrial infrastructure in recent years, with many, like Saturday’s blast, blamed on negligence.

They have included refinery fires, a gas explosion at a coalmine, and an emergency repairs incident at Bandar Abbas killed one worker in 2023.

Iran has blamed some other incidents on its arch-foe Israel, which has carried out attacks on Iranian soil targeting Iran’s nuclear program in recent years and last year bombed the country’s air defenses.

Tehran said Israel was behind a February, 2024 attack on Iranian gas pipelines. And in 2020, computers at Shahid Rajaee were hit by a cyberattack. The Washington Post reported that Iran’s arch-foe Israel appeared to be behind that incident as retaliation for an earlier Iranian cyberattack.

Israel has indicated it is nervous about the outcome of US-Iran talks, demanding a full dismantlement of Iran’s nuclear program. Tehran says the program is used solely for peaceful purposes, while international observers say it is getting closer to being able to build a bomb.

There was no immediate comment from Israeli military or Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office when asked for comment on whether Israel was in any way involved in Saturday’s explosion.

Oil facilities were not affected by the blast on Saturday, Iranian authorities said. The National Iranian Petroleum Refining and Distribution Company said in a statement that it had “no connection to refineries, fuel tanks, distribution complexes and oil pipelines.”

The post Suspected Chemical Blast at Iran’s Bandar Abbas Kills 4, Injures Hundreds first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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