On 5 June 2023, Kan confirmed its participation in the 2024 contest, announcing that its representative would return to be selected through the reality singing competition Rising Star, which had been used between 2015 and 2020.

The judging panel for the competition was composed of Assaf Amdursky, Keren Peles, Shiri Maimon (2005 Israeli Eurovision entrant), Ran Danker, Itay Levi [he] and Eden Hason.

[4][5] Preliminary casting rounds started in late July 2023[4][5] and ended on 10 September 2023 at Pavilion 2 of Expo Tel Aviv (Eurovision 2019 venue), where candidates were judged based on an a cappella performance of two songs of their choice.

[6][7] Qualifiers from the preliminary casting phase proceeded to the auditions proper, held in Neve Ilan and originally set to be filmed in the presence of an audience from late September or early October 2023 and to begin airing in November 2023.

[17][18] The second show, scheduled for 22 November,[19] was postponed to make room for a governmental press conference regarding a deal negotiated that day for the release of hostages held by Hamas;[20] broadcasting resumed on 2 December.

[6][7] The audition shows also included segments in support of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), and the very first contestant Shai Tamino, a member of the Education and Youth Corps band, performed wearing military fatigues;[17][19] this led some Eurovision fan media outlets to begin limiting their coverage of Israel's participation in the 2024 contest, on the grounds that it clashed with the non-political and pacifist values traditionally associated with the event.

On 16 January 2024, Kan and Keshet opened a window for specially selected songwriters to submit their entries until 11 February; submissions were required to include lyrics in Hebrew.

[51] The selected entry, titled "Hurricane", was revealed on 10 March during a special broadcast on Kan 11, aired from the Yitzhak Rabin Center in Tel Aviv and hosted by Lior Suchard.

[54][55][56][57] On 19 February 2024, a report by Israel Hayom claimed that the proposed entry for the contest was being written by Avi Ohayon [he], Keren Peles, and Stav Beger, with it most likely being titled "October Rain".

Despite previous statements, Kan ultimately asked the writers of both songs to "make the necessary adjustments" in order for them to be eligible,[54] and announced that the final intended entry, "Hurricane" (reported to be a revision of "October Rain" with changed lyrics), had been recorded later that day.

[70] The humanitarian crisis resulting from Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip during the war led to calls for the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) to exclude Israel from the 2024 contest, with human rights activists urging other countries to boycott the event.

[74][75] The situation sparked controversy in a number of participating countries: Petitions and letters requesting the EBU to exclude Israel were also signed by several former Eurovision entrants or intended entrants, including Ágústa Eva Erlendsdóttir (Iceland 2006 as Silvía Night), Malena Ernman (Sweden 2009), Eric Saade (Sweden 2011), Hatari (Iceland 2019), Ben Dolic (Germany 2020), Montaigne (Australia 2020 and 2021) and La Zarra (France 2023).

[126][127] While not mentioning Israel's participation in the contest, on 29 March 2024, several entrants – namely Bambie Thug (Ireland), Gåte (Norway), Iolanda (Portugal), Megara (San Marino), Mustii (Belgium), Nemo (Switzerland), Olly Alexander (United Kingdom), Saba (Denmark), Silvester Belt (Lithuania) and Windows95man (Finland) – released a joint statement calling for "an immediate and lasting ceasefire" in Gaza, as well as the return of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas.

[131] A number of national selection events were disrupted by activists calling for a boycott in the lead-up to the event, including Norway's Melodi Grand Prix,[132] Spain's Benidorm Fest,[133] Sweden's Melodifestivalen,[134] Denmark's Dansk Melodi Grand Prix,[135] and Finland's Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu;[136] in addition, Dargen D'Amico and Ghali's statements calling for a ceasefire and an end to the "genocide" during their performances at Italy's Sanremo Music Festival caused public reactions by Italian broadcaster RAI and the Israeli ambassador to the country.

[f] The repeated refusal of the EBU to discuss the issue of Israel's participation was also attributed by some to Moroccanoil, the main sponsor of the event since 2020, being an Israeli company.

[g] On 9 April 2024, the EBU released a statement by deputy director-general Jean Philip De Tender addressing "targeted social media campaigns" against participating artists, reportedly over the insufficient pressure put on the union to exclude Israel.

De Tender stated that the inclusion of a country in the contest "is the sole responsibility of the EBU's governing bodies and not that of the individual artists", condemning abuse or harassment directed at the performers while also defending the rationale whereby Kan had been allowed to take part;[147] this was reiterated by the contest's executive supervisor Martin Österdahl in an interview with Dagens industri on 27 April.

[156] At the request of Kan, Israel was allocated to the second semi-final as the rehearsal date for the first one coincides with Yom HaShoah;[157] the country was drawn to perform in the second half of the show.

[159] In Israel, all three shows of the contest were broadcast on Kan 11, with commentary provided by Asaf Liberman [he] and Akiva Novick [he]; Yoav Tzafir [he] joined them for the final.

[173] Livne claimed that the organisers explicitly instructed him against using any symbolism that might have political references to "the situation in Israel", rejecting a number of costume proposals.

[183] The Israeli jury consisted of Yaron Ashbel, Shlomit Dersso, Maya Opal Drukman, Kobi Marimi (who represented Israel in 2019), and May Sfadia.