Shani Louk, 22-year-old woman kidnapped by Hamas at music festival, confirmed dead by Israel

Berlin — More than three weeks after Hamas' brutal terror rampage across southern Israel, the family of a young German-Israeli woman received confirmation from Israel's government on Sunday that she was dead. Shani Louk was among the victims of a massacre carried out by Hamas gunmen at a music festival in the southern Israeli desert, very near the border with the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, on Oct. 7. 

Her death was confirmed by the Israeli Foreign Ministry, which posted a condolence message on social media after informing Louk's family.

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"Our hearts are broken," the ministry wrote on social media. "Shani, who was kidnapped from a music festival and tortured and paraded around Gaza by Hamas terrorists, experienced unfathomable horrors. May her memory be a blessing."

Louk, 22, had been one of the many people listed as missing since the Hamas attack.

"Unfortunately, we received the news yesterday that my daughter is no longer alive," Louk's mother Ricarda Louk told Germany's DPA news agency. She said she assumed her daughter was killed on Oct. 7 and that Israeli authorities had informed the family a fragment of skull was found matching Shani's DNA, suggesting she was likely killed by a gunshot to the head.

Ricarda Louk told DPA that while the news her family had received was horrible, she was glad to learn that her daughter likely "didn't suffer."

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The German Foreign Office told CBS News it had learned of the "death of another person with German citizenship," but it did not comment specifically on the circumstances of Louk's death or how the family was informed.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, in his own post on X, said Louk was "brutally murdered," highlighting "the full barbarity behind the Hamas attack." The German leader added that Hamas "must be held accountable. This is terror and Israel has the right to defend itself."

Germany's government has said that fewer than 10 German nationals were killed in Hamas' attack. Israel has accused Hamas of killing more than 1,400 people in its rampage and ongoing rocket launches.

Louk was among the hundreds of mostly young people dancing into the early morning hours at the Supernova trance music festival near Re'im, southern Israel, just a few miles from the border with the Gaza Strip, when Hamas militants stormed the site.

Israeli officials have said at least 260 people were murdered and many more abducted from the Supernova festival.

According to the German Foreign Office, a total of eight German citizens remain missing in Israel.

In:
• War
• Terrorism
• Hostage Situation
• Hamas
• Israel
• Gaza Strip
• Kidnapping

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