Shani Louk, a German woman who had been captured by Hamas operatives on October 7, has died and her body has been found by the Israeli troops in Gaza, her family and Israel 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 when she was 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 by her mother Ricarda Louk seeking 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 with the Palestinians and them driving around the Gaza Strip," she had said in the video.
The 23-year-old had been paraded naked in a pick-up truck after being captured. In videos that were shared in the immediate aftermath of the terror attacks, Shani is lying face down in a pickup truck. Her family say they identified Shani from her dreadlocks and distinctive tattoos.
Sharing the news of her death on X, Israel said, "Shani who was kidnapped from a music festival and tortured and paraded around Gaza by Hamas terrorists, experienced unfathomable horrors. Our hearts are broken."
Shani was attending the music festival and clips on social media had shown her dancing and singing with her friends just hours before the Hamas group stormed into the venue.
According to German news site DW, Ms Louk was trying to flee when she was captured by Hamas operatives, who took her into Gaza, where she was filmed being beaten.
Israeli forces have stepped up their ground offensive in Gaza as part of the military response to the Hamas attacks that officials say killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians, with another 239 people taken hostage.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says more than 8,000 people, mainly civilians, mostly civilians and more than half of them children, have since been killed in Israeli air and ground strikes.
