Status: 13.10.2023, 19:04 PM
By: Romina Kunze, Sandra Sporer, Moritz Bletzinger
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During the attack on Israel, Hamas took hostages, including the German Shani Louk. She is said to be injured in a hospital in the Gaza Strip.
Update from October 13, 10:35 a.m.: While the first special flights to evacuate German citizens have landed safely on German soil, the fear for relatives for others continues. One of the missing is 22-year-old Shani Louk. Since Hamas' attack on Israel, the festival-goer with German roots has disappeared. A video and other clues suggest that she was abducted by the terrorists.
According to information from the family, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also wants to meet with the mother of Shani Louk, who is allegedly abducted to the Gaza Strip, during her visit to Israel. According to the Foreign Office, the Green politician has now arrived in Israel for her solidarity visit. In the afternoon, the meeting is to take place at a secret location.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) wants to meet in Israel with the mother of the probably abducted Shani Louk (22). For days, the family of the young woman with German roots has been begging for help from the German government. © Imago/Photo-Montage
The mother of the missing Shani Louk had repeatedly asked the government for help on social networks after her disappearance. According to her mother, the young woman is badly injured but alive. The family believes the young woman is in the Gaza Strip. "We demand and wish for swift humanitarian, medical and human assistance for Shani and all prisoners in the Gaza Strip," Mother Ricarda said in a video appeal on Tuesday (October 10)
Mother of missing Shani Louk (22) begs for help – German government is doing too little for Israel hostages
Update from October 12, 10:28 a.m.: "I sometimes hope it's better that Shani isn't conscious. And when we get her back, she'll wake up and won't remember much," Shani Louk's mother said in an interview with RTL. The 22-year-old is believed to be being held hostage by Hamas. For days, her mother Ricarda has been begging for help from the German government. She is dissatisfied, so far not much has been done to save Shani.
Ricarda refers to her "little fairy" when it comes to Shani. The mother hardly wants to imagine what she has to go through right now. "It's worst at night when you're alone and you're thinking about what's going on with her. That's when it gets difficult," she says.
Thousands have seen the video of Shani being thrown onto a pickup truck and driven away by Hamas. In the pictures, she is unconscious, she has suffered a head injury. After all, Shani is or has been receiving medical care, Ricarda claims to have learned: "We know from a contact person that she is in a hospital. That she is seriously injured in the head in a critical situation. But that's all. We haven't heard since."
German Shani Louk (22) probably abducted alive from Israel: Family disappointed by the Foreign Office
Update from October 11, 23:04 p.m.: The family of the abducted German and Israeli Shani Louk continues to fear for the life of the 22-year-old, who is currently said to be in critical condition in a hospital in the Gaza Strip. Her uncle, who is currently said to be near Stuttgart and lives in Turkey, now expressed in an interview with the F.A.Z. Disappointment with the Foreign Office. "We as a family feel abandoned," he told the newspaper.
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At first, it was not possible to establish any helpful contact with the office, says her uncle. On the first call, an employee complained about the amount of work, and after two calls he was even directed to fill out a form. In the end, it was only possible to establish a successful contact through Axel Müller, a member of the Bundestag from Ravensburg.
German Shani Louk (22) abducted from Israel probably alive: family learns presumed whereabouts
Update from October 11, 7:00 a.m.: Shani Louk, who was kidnapped by Hamas and has been missing ever since, is believed to be alive. Shani's aunt and uncle said this in an interview with ZDFheute, referring to contacts in Gaza. She is said to be lying in a hospital in Gaza with serious head injuries.
"Please free Shani from Gaza," his uncle and aunt desperately addressed the German authorities again. They hope that the government will now pull out all the stops to bring Shani to safety.
After attack on Israel: Mother of kidnapped Shani Louk asks German government to act quickly
Update from October 10, 18:24 p.m.: "Every minute is critical and we ask – no, we demand – from the German government to act quickly," the mother of the kidnapped Shani Louk said in a new video seen by Reuters. In it, the woman once again urgently asks Germany for help. "You shouldn't argue about responsibilities. We have to act quickly to get the Shani out of the Gaza Strip."
The family has information that the 22-year-old is still alive. But she is said to have suffered a head injury and is in critical condition.
German Shani Louk (22) abducted from Israel by Hamas: Mother begs German government for help
Update from October 10, 2023, 15:08 p.m.: Shani Louk, 22, was dancing at a music festival in Israel near the Gaza Strip when Hamas, a terrorist organization, launched attacks. The young Israeli woman with German citizenship is said to have been abducted as a hostage. At first, it was unclear whether Shani Louk was still alive. Now there is new information about the case.
"We now have more information that Shani is alive," her mother said in a video obtained by the Tagesschau. However, it is in a "critical situation". She is lying in a hospital in the Gaza Strip with a serious head injury. "Every minute is critical," the mother emphasized. She then appealed to the federal government and asked for quick help. "This is really my desperate appeal to the whole country, to Germany, to help me get my Shani back home, safely."
The 22-year-old had been missing since Saturday. In a video, relatives identified Shani Louk from her tattoos half-naked on a pick-up truck between several Hamas men, apparently in the Gaza Strip. Previously, she had participated in a music festival in an Israeli rural settlement.
After Hamas attacks on music festival in Israel: "Free my niece from this horror"
Update from October 9, 2023, 19:45 p.m.: The world was shocked by the image of a young woman lying motionless in the back of a Hamas vehicle, surrounded by cheering terrorists. The family is sure that this is the Israeli with German citizenship Shani Louk. The 22-year-old has been missing since the attack on the music festival (Supernova) in southern Israel. She is believed to have been abducted by Hamas.
"We don't get any information here, only from the videos, and the situation is not good," Orly Louk, her aunt, told the German Press Agency (dpa) in Sulz am Neckar. Her niece is a German citizen, she confirmed. "The responsibility lies with the German government to send someone and free my niece from this horror," she explained.
Previously, Shani's mother Ricarda had already asked for help in a video shared on Twitter (see initial report). She undoubtedly recognized her daughter in another video purporting to show her abduction, she said. Another video has surfaced on X (formerly Twitter) that may show the missing woman. In it, people can be seen trying to flee both by car and on foot, with gunshots heard in the background.
A conspicuous tattoo on the woman's thigh, which also shows the person in both videos, is said to give clues to her identity. Whether the woman in the brutal video is really Shani Louk cannot be independently verified.
German Shani Louk kidnapped from Israel by Hamas – mother asks for information in video appeal
First reported on October 9, 2023, 13:54 p.m.:
Tel Aviv – 22-year-old Shani Louk was at an open-air party near a kibbutz, a rural settlement, when Hamas struck. The partygoers tried to escape, but not all of them managed to escape. Shani is also said to have fallen into the clutches of Hamas. Her mother then went public with a video message posted by the X account "Visegrád 24". Among those kidnapped by Hamas are said to be other Germans.
She was sent a video in which she recognized her daughter perfectly, she explains. In the video, Shani was found unconscious in a Hamas car. Meanwhile, she holds up a picture of her daughter to the camera. Finally, she asks anyone who knows anything about her daughter's whereabouts to contact her.
However, according to a report by the news magazine blick.ch, it could be that the 22-year-old is already dead. In now-surfaced images circulating on Platform X, a young woman with "unnaturally bent legs" can be seen in the back of a pick-up truck next to heavily armed Hamas supporters, who celebrate her like some kind of trophy. There is a large wound on her head. Particularly striking: The tattoos as well as the hair of the woman resemble those of Shani.
22-year-old Shani is missing from her mother. She is believed to be in Hamas captivity. It is unclear whether she is still alive. © Screenshot/shanukkk/dpa/Hassan Eslaiah
Hamas attack on Israel: Family recognizes daughter kidnapped by Hamas by her tattoos
Her relatives, some of whom live in Baden-Württemberg, were able to identify her in a video based on these abnormalities, among other things. "We recognized her by the tattoos, and she has long dreadlocks," the Washington Post quotes a cousin of the kidnapped German. And Shani's chances of survival are also estimated to be low, the family continues to hope. "Hamas is responsible for them and the others," Louk's cousin said.
For more information on the situation in Israel, check out our news ticker on Hamas' attack on Israel. The reasons for the Hamas-Israel conflict lie in the past. (sp
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