New Delhi:
Shani Louk, a German woman captured by Hamas operatives on October 7, has died and her body has been found by Israeli forces in Gaza, her family and the Israeli government confirmed today.
“It is with great sadness that we announce the death of my sister,” her sister Adi Louk said on social media.
The 23-year-old was taken hostage while attending the Supernova music festival near the Gaza border, which became one of the targets of a surprise Hamas attack on October 7.
After she went missing, an appeal from her mother Ricarda Louk, requesting the German and Israeli governments to get Shani Louk back, went viral on social media. “We were sent a video in which I could clearly see our daughter unconscious in the car as the Palestinians drove through the Gaza Strip,” she had said in the video.
The 23-year-old had been paraded naked in a pickup truck after being arrested. In videos shared in the immediate aftermath of the terror attacks, Shani lies face down in a pickup truck. Her family says they identified Shani by her dreadlocks and distinctive tattoos.
Israel shared the news of her death on
We are devastated to announce that the body of 23-year-old German-Israeli Shani Luk has been found and identified.
Shani, who was kidnapped from a music festival and tortured by Hamas terrorists and paraded through Gaza, experienced unfathomable horrors.
Our hearts are broken 💔.
Be able to… pic.twitter.com/GLXOmePRAd
— Israel ישראל 🇮🇱 (@Israel) October 30, 2023
Shani attended the music festival and social media clips showed her dancing and singing with her friends just hours before the Hamas group stormed the venue.
According to German newspaper DW, Ms Louk tried to flee when she was captured by Hamas operatives, who took her to Gaza, where she was filmed being beaten.
Israeli forces have stepped up their ground offensive in Gaza as part of the military response to Hamas attacks that officials say killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians, while taking another 239 hostage.
The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says more than 8,000 people, mostly civilians and more than half of them children, have been killed in Israeli air and ground strikes since then.