Moran Stella Yanai was selling jewelry at the Nova music festival in the Negev Desert in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, when rockets fired from Gaza, about three miles west, began to rain down on the more than 3,500 attendees. Soon, the coordinated attack by Hamas militants choked off escape routes. More than 300 festivalgoers were murdered.

More than 40 festivalgoers were taken hostage. Yanai was one of them.

She spent 54 days in captivity and was among the first hostages released. The remaining 20 hostages of the original total of 251 abducted across Israel that day were freed on Oct. 13, 2025, as part of cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas.

Instead of descending into darkness, Yanai has spoken broadly about how she surrendered to her faith and turned her experience into

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