Ben-Yosef Livnat was born on October 31, 1986 to Rivka and Noam.
Ben-Yosef, a Breslav Hassid, studied at Kollel Ohr Shlomo in Tel Rumeida for a few years, before moving, with his wife and family, first to Beit Hadassah for about a year and then to the Beit Yisrael neighborhood of Jerusalem.
On April 24, 2011, he was shot and killed when a Palestinian policeman opened fire on a group of Breslav Hassidim on their way to prayer at Joseph’s Tomb, on the outskirts of Nablus. Ben-Yosef was buried on the Mount of Olives Cemetery in Jerusalem and is survived by his parents, 5 siblings, his wife Shira and 4 children. He was the nephew of Minister Limor Livnat who spoke of "the luminous light that always shone from his eyes."