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by Andrew Bernard
23-year-old German-Israeli Shani Louk, who was murdered by Hamas on October 7, 2023. (Photo: Instagram)
A 23-year-old German-Israeli woman was confirmed by Israel’s President Isaac Herzog on Monday to have been murdered by Hamas after she was abducted at a music festival in southern Israel during the Hamas atrocities of Oct. 7.
Shani Louk had attended the Nova music festival about three miles from the Gaza border near kibbutz Re’im, which was overrun by Hamas terrorists.
The terrorists murdered revelers and forcibly seized dozens more as hostages among the more than 200 Israelis kidnapped and spirited to Gaza. A video published on social media depicted Hamas terrorists parading and degrading Louk’s naked body through Gaza shortly after the massacre. Her family was able to identify her from the video, but until Monday it was believed that she might have been unconscious but still alive when the original video was filmed.
“I am truly sorry to report that we have now received news that Shani Nicole Louk has been confirmed murdered and dead,” Herzog said Monday in an interview with the German newspaper Bild. “Her skull has been found. This means that these barbaric, sadistic animals simply chopped off her head as they attacked, tortured and killed Israelis. It is a great tragedy and I extend my deepest condolences to her family.”
Louk’s family were informed by the Israel Defense Forces on Sunday that they believe that she was killed instantly and was not alive at the time that the video in Gaza was filmed.
“For us right now death is certain, I think the parents are kind of relieved,” Shani’s aunt, Ruthie, said. “There is comfort in the fact that she did not suffer, that she was not abused, with all the horrors we hear, that she died on the spot….Shani was a child without boundaries, she is like a free soul that does not recognize borders between countries, people, religions. And she loved to dance so much. She had integrity but also great independence. How does such a pure thing circulate in the world?”
Hamas is believed to be holding more than 200 hostages in Gaza after their murder of more than 1,400 people in Israel on Oct. 7.
