A young woman whose naked body was paraded on the back of a pick-up truck by Hamas terrorists has been confirmed dead, her family have said.
Shani Louk, 22, was enjoying a festival close to the Gaza border on October 7 when militants attacked, slaughtering hundreds and taking others hostage.
Ms Louk was seen naked and seemingly unconscious on the back of a vehicle, lying at the feet of two gun-toting Hamas fighters. Her mother Ricarda Louk recognised her daughter from tattoos on her body and made an appeal for her to be released.
She told German news agency dpa on Monday that the Israeli military has confirmed that her daughter is dead. She said her daughter’s body hasn’t been found, but a splinter of a skull bone was located and submitted for a DNA test.
She believes her daughter died on October 7. The German government has said that a “low two-digit number” of German Israeli dual citizens are believed to be held in Gaza.
Ms Louk was dancing with hundreds of revellers at a festival near the Kibbutz Re’im when gunmen opened fire after they stormed the complex on motorbikes and in vehicles.
More than 260 people were butchered in the attack, according to the Israeli authorities. Many others were taken hostage.
Videos of the attack show people running for their lives and trying to get into cars to escape. The entrance to the festival could be seen clogged with vehicles where Hamas gunmen shot people without mercy.
London-born British citizen Jake Marlowe was providing security at the Supernova Festival and was first reported “missing” following the Hamas attack.
The 26-year-old was also later confirmed dead.
Noa Beer, 29, who has family in Manchester, also attended the festival.
She said she and four others narrowly escaped after Ms Beer rammed her car through a roadblock while militants were shooting at them “like crazy”.
Ms Beer, who works in the music industry, told BBC North West Tonight: “I honestly did not think I was going to make it, I was a combat soldier in the Army and it was pure instinct that got us out.”
“About three minutes after they told us to get out of the area, I was in a car with the DJ. We were very lucky to have a car in the VIP section, and the fact that we had our backpacks and we didn’t have any tents made us able to leave very quickly.”
The pair drove briefly before encountering a gunman at a roadblock.
She said: “Israeli soldiers wear green vests, and they had black vests. That was when I understood that they weren’t soldiers.
“They were all around us, surrounding the car completely. They started shooting at us.
“They were just shooting at us like crazy.”
Ms Beer helped three people escape by dragging them into the car, including a woman with a gun shot wound in her leg.
