Peter Raphael was born on February 1, 1926 in Germany to his mother Gucca and his father Kurt Menashe, a distinguished lawyer and a renowned Zionist. The family made aliyah in 1933 with many other German Jews, as Hitler ascended to power. The Menashe family settled in Jerusalem. His father, like many others who had occupied prominent positions in the Diaspora, could not adjust to life in the Land of Israel and died a few years later.

Raphael suffered from polio, and although he overcame the disease, he continued to bear the physical signs of it for the rest of his life. He was a bright and talented youth, with strong inclinations towards writing. From age twelve, he started writing for different periodicals in the Land of Israel and abroad. This included the daily English-language newspaper Palestine Post, in which he was first published before he had reached the age of bar mitzva.

He studied in Sokolov Gymnasium, and after finishing his studies, he started working in an office. He continued to be involved in journalism, writing plays for stage and radio, as well as literary criticism. Several of his humorous writings appeared in a special publication in 1946, Hiyukhim (Smiles).

In 1947, he joined Lehi and wrote for Lehi’s public periodical, Mivrak, at Camp Dror in Talbiyeh. He dealt with education, writing and communications with journalists. In that year, he married Shoshana Sasson. On May 25, 1948, their son Amos was born.

At the beginning of the second ceasefire, on July 26, 1948, while on a tour in the field with various journalists and reporters, Raphael was shot and killed by a sniper on the wall of the city. At first, he was buried in Sanhedria, but on November 8, 1951, he was re-interred at the Mt. Herzl Military Cemetery.

He left a wife and a two-month-old baby.