Shani Louk, a 23-year-old kidnapped by Hamas from a music festival, declared dead, Israel says
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Shani Louk, a 23-year-old kidnapped by Hamas from a music festival, was declared dead, Israel says. The bone fragment was from the petrous part of the temporal bone, which is at the base of the skull, normally near the carotid artery, a major blood vessel that provides blood to the brain. A DNA test concluded the fragment belonged to Louk.
Louk was attending
the festival in southern Israel on October 7 when
Hamas breached the border between Gaza and Israel.
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Louk was kidnapped at the festival and
“tortured and paraded around Gaza by Hamas terrorists,” the foreign ministry
statement said, adding that she “experienced unfathomable horrors.”
“May her memory be a blessing,” the
statement said.
The bone fragment, combined with the
circumstances surrounding the October 7 attack and video that appeared to
show Louk unconscious on the back of a Hamas truck, led investigators
to conclude these were her remains.
Militants blocked off the road to the
festival from the north and the south during their October 7 attack, before
swarming the sprawling site on foot, videos from the site showed.
They then encircled the crowds on three
sides, gunning them down and forcing them to flee over fields to the east.
Ricarda Louk, Shani’s mother, told CNN
earlier this month that she last spoke to her daughter after hearing rockets
and alarms sounding in southern Israel, calling to see if she’d made it to a
secure location. Shani told her mother she was at the festival with few places
to hide.
“She was going to her car and they had military people
standing by the cars and were shooting so people couldn’t reach their cars,
even to go away. And that’s when they took her,” Ricarda told CNN, adding that
she hoped to see her daughter again, but that the situation appeared bleak.
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“It looks very bad, but I still have hope. I
hope that they don’t take bodies for negotiations. I hope that she’s still
alive somewhere. We don’t have anything else to hope for, so I try to believe,”
she said.
More than 260 bodies were found at the Nova
festival site itself, according to Israeli rescue service Zaka but, based
on CNN’s analysis, the total
death toll could be even higher.
The body of Louk, a dual Israeli-German
citizen, was seen on video seemingly unconscious on the back of a Hamas truck
after the music festival attack.
“After the video, you saw that, it’s
impossible to see if she’s alive or dead. It was very scary, and we were very
worried,” Louk’s mother told CNN in the days after the rampage.
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Her mother added that she had sought
support from the German government in helping free her daughter. “I don’t
understand really how such a brutal thing can just happen in the middle of the
day and it was a complete surprise,” Louk said.
Netanyahu under pressure from
hostages’ families and cabinet as Gaza operation escalates
A number of hostages were also taken back to
Gaza. The latest figure of hostages believed to be held by Hamas in the enclave
is up to 239, Israeli military spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said
on Sunday.
A female Israeli soldier who had been
kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 was released during ground operations in Gaza,
the Israel Defense Forces said Monday.
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The IDF added that “the soldier was medically checked, is doing
well, and has met with her family.”
Four hostages had previously been released –
an American woman and her daughter, and later an 85-year-old Israeli woman and
her 79-year-old friend.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu is under increasing pressure from the families of hostages for a
“comprehensive deal” to ensure their release. These calls are becoming more
urgent amid concerns about what Israel’s expanding ground operations could mean
for the safety of hostages trapped in Gaza.
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Netanyahu met with families of the hostages
in Tel Aviv on Saturday, where they demanded answers on the security of their
loved ones and pushed him to secure the hostages’ freedom, as Israel’s
offensive escalated.
“We spoke bluntly and made it clear to the
prime minister in no uncertain terms that a comprehensive deal based on the
‘everyone for everyone’ principle is a deal the families would consider, and
has the support of all of Israel,” Meirav Leshem Gonen, mother of Romi Gonen,
who was kidnapped from the festival,
said on behalf of the families in a news conference following the meeting.
An “everyone for everyone” deal would
involve the release of the hostages in exchange for Palestinians currently held
in Israeli prisons, which the nongovernmental organization Palestinian
Prisoners Club estimates to be 6,630 people.
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On Monday, Hamas released a short video
showing three women who are believed to be captives held by the Palestinian
militant group.
The video shows them seated in plastic chairs
facing the camera, while the woman in the middle addresses Netanyahu directly
with increasing fury. She makes reference to a press conference by families of
the hostages “yesterday,” suggesting it was filmed on Monday.
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The women do not show visible signs of
physical mistreatment, but CNN is unable to verify anything about their
circumstances or well-being.
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