The Israeli Foreign Ministry announced on Monday (October 30th) the death of a German-Israeli woman, Shani Louk, who had been kidnapped by Hamas during the October 7 attacks and whose family had appealed to the authorities for help.
To discover
- Download the Le Figaro app: the news at the heart of your day
«
We are devastated to report that the death of Shani Louk, a 23-year-old German-Israeli woman, has been confirmed," the Israeli ministry wrote on social network X (formerly Twitter), without specifying the circumstances of the discovery.
270 dead
Shani Louk has "experienced unfathomable horrors," the ministry added, after she was kidnapped by Hamas while attending the Tribe of Nova music festival in southern Israel, one of the targets of the Palestinian Islamist movement during the Oct. 7 attacks. "Unfortunately, we learned yesterday that my daughter is no longer alive," Ricarda Louk, the young woman's mother, told German broadcaster RTL on Monday.
According to Israeli authorities, 270 people were killed at the festival site by Hamas commandos who also took hostages. Ricarda Louk, a German who has lived in Israel for three decades, appealed for help in finding her daughter the day after the attack recognized her in videos circulating online because of her distinctive tattoos and hairstyle.
LIVE - Dagestan airport storm: Russia accuses Ukraine of playing a 'key role'
The videos showed a half-naked woman lying face down in the back of a pickup truck, apparently unconscious. Around her are armed men, one of whom pulls her hair and another spits on her bloodied head. The German government on Monday confirmed the death of a German hostage in the Gaza Strip, without details of his identity. According to Berlin, several Germans - fewer than ten - are among those killed by Hamas and "a small double-digit number" of hostages with German nationality have been held since the October 7 attacks, in which more than 1400,<> people were killed, mostly civilians, according to Israeli authorities.