Shani Louk, a German woman who was kidnapped from a music festival in Southern Israel by Hamas during the October 7th terror attacks, has died according to her family.
UPDATE 1300: Israeli President Yitzchak Herzog has claimed that Shani Louk’s “skull has been found”, telling the German newspaper Welt: “It means that these barbaric, sadistic animals simply chopped off her head while they were attacking, torturing and killing Israelis.”
“What we saw on the border between Gaza and Israel goes far beyond a pogrom. We saw a slaughterhouse. We saw the blood flowing in the streets. We saw the most terrible tragedies imaginable,” Herzog added.
The original story continues as follows:
Louk, 22, a tattoo artist and peace campaigner was attending a Re’im music festival in the Negev Desert when Hamas terrorists stormed the festival, brutally killing over 260 civilians and kidnapping an unconfirmed number of others during the massacre.
The world was shocked by footage that emerged showing Louk’s seemingly lifeless, half-naked, and unnaturally contorted body paraded in the back of a Hamas pick-up truck. She was surrounded by several men who shouted “Allahu Akbar” while spitting on her back.
While it was initially assumed by many that the young German woman was dead, her mother, Ricarda Louk, later claimed to have received information that her daughter was badly injured, but still alive in a hospital in Gaza.
However, on Monday, Ricarda said that she was informed by Israeli military sources that Shani had died from her injuries, telling German broadcaster NTV: “Unfortunately, we received news yesterday that my daughter is no longer alive.”
Shani’s sister also confirmed her death, writing: “It is with great sadness that we announce the death of my sister, Shani Nicole Z.L. [may her memory be a blessing], who was on October 7, 2023, at the party massacre in Re’im.”
The Israeli Foreign Ministry also confirmed the death of Louk, using DNA from family members to compare with a piece of her skull. It is now assumed that Louk died on October 7th, likely being shot in the head.
“At least she didn’t suffer,” said her mother.
Shani held German citizenship but was raised in Israel after her mother’s conversion from Catholicism to Judaism.
Despite initial claims from pro-Palestinian sources on social media that she was an Israeli soldier, Louk’s aunt Orly later revealed that in reality, she was a peace campaigner who had abstained from Israel’s mandatory military service as a conscientious objector.
A survivor from the attack on the music festival from which Louk was taken said that it was “four [or] five hours of a horror movie”.
Another said: “It was a massacre… I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. It was a planned ambush. As people came out of the emergency exits, squads of terrorists were waiting for them there and just started picking them off.”
Over 200 people were kidnapped from Israel by Hamas terrorists on October 7, including several German citizens. Around 1,200 people were killed during the October 7 attacks.
Editor’s Note: This story was updated to reflect a revised number on the death toll from the October 7 Hamas attack in Israel. The Israeli government estimate of 1,400 was revised to around 1,200, according to Reuters.