Shani Louk, a German-Israeli concertgoer whose body was infamously paraded around Gaza by Hamas terrorists following their attack in early October, was confirmed dead on Monday.
“Unfortunately, we received the news yesterday that my daughter is no longer alive,” Ricarda Louk, Shani’s mother, told the German outlet RTL. Foreign media outlets had earlier mistakenly reported that Louk was receiving medical treatment in a Gaza hospital.
Israel’s volunteer emergency response organization, ZAKA, sent a letter to Louk’s family on Sunday night informing them that they had recovered a skull bone fragment that matched her DNA. Her body, however, remains in the Gaza Strip.
“On the one hand, [I feel] sadness, because there is no chance they will return her; on the other hand, we have clarity at least on what happened to her, and it gives us a kind of closure,” Ricarda told Israel’s Kan news.
Louk’s body had appeared face down in a pickup truck in videos after Hamas’s surprise invasion of Israel, as Palestinians spat on her. It was not clear whether she was alive at the time.
According to Israeli journalist Elad Simchayoff of Channel 12 news, the remnants of Louk’s skull were found during an IDF raid in northern Gaza, establishing that she had been “partly beheaded.” Israeli president Isaac Herzog echoed the report during an interview saying, “They found her skull, which means these barbaric sadistic animals simply chopped off her head.“
Shani’s father, Nissim, expressed relief following days of uncertainty over her status. “I’m happy. First, that this thing is over, that we know exactly what happened,” he told another German outlet. “Because I know where she is, she isn’t lying in some tunnel under Gaza, where every minute we are firing at them and all the earth is shaking, and there is dust, and it’s impossible to breathe.”
“We know she is dead, we know she didn’t suffer, we also know a minute before the murderers came she was dancing, she was happy, she prayed, she went wild, with all her friends around her, and she had fun,” he added.
Confirmation of Louk’s death also drew condemnation from German chancellor Olaf Scholz. “Like many others, she was brutally murdered. This shows the full barbarity behind the Hamas attack — who must be held accountable.”
“This is terror, and Israel has the right to defend itself,” the chancellor added.