The mother of the 22-year-old German-Israeli woman thought to have been stripped naked and murdered by Hamas now believes her daughter is alive — and has demanded the German government’s help in getting the young woman back to safety.
Shani Louk’s mother said that a video of an unconscious, unidentified woman being driven by militants into what looks like Palestinian territory indicates that her daughter is still alive, Spiegel reported.
“We now have further information that Shani is alive, but has a severe head injury and is in critical condition. Every minute is critical,” the desperate mother explained in a brief recording.
“We ask — no, we demand that the German government act quickly,” she continued.
“This is really my desperate call to the entire country of Germany to help me get my Shani back home healthy.”
Louk was last seen dancing happily at the Tribe of Nova party in the northern Negev Saturday before the rave was stormed by Hamas militants, who killed at least 260 revelers and left countless others injured.
Louk, a tattoo artist, was initially reported to have been raped and killed before the attackers supposedly paraded her naked body as a gruesome trophy.
The video – which has already circulated the internet – obscures the woman’s face, but Louk’s family believes it is her due to the tattoos and dreadlocks, BILD explained.
The family was also alerted to Louk’s credit card allegedly being used in Gaza on Sunday, The Daily Beast added.
A family friend in the Gaza Strip thinks the young woman is now in the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahia, but has not been able to visit, another family acquaintance told Spiegel.
Louk has never lived in Germany, but traveled there frequently to visit her maternal grandparents, Spiegel noted.
Her family – including her mother, who converted to Judaism from Catholicism, and her father, who is Israeli – live about 50 miles from the Gaza Strip, the outlet said.
Louk attended kindergarten at the Jewish Portland Academy in Portland, Oregon – and was remembered by a former teacher as “sweet” with a “beautiful smile.”