Kidnapped in Gaza Strip
Shani Louk’s family calls for more support
Shani Louk’s aunt Orly Louk shows a photo
© David Pichler/TNN/dpa
A 22-year-old is said to have been abducted by Hamas terrorists to the Gaza Strip – her mother is publicly fighting for information and, after a meeting with Foreign Minister Baerbock, is calling for more action.
The mother of the alleged Hamas terrorists in the The German who was abducted from the Gaza Strip, Shani Louk, hopes that the federal government will do more to help the hostages. “We hope that more will be done now,” said Ricarda Louk after the meeting with Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) in Israel. “It was very good that she was here in our country,” Louk told dpa. Baerbock met with families of the hostages on Friday. “She listened to the stories and was very affected.”
It was important to make it clear to the families “that we don’t have time.” Among those suspected of being abducted were small children and old people who needed medicine. “My daughter has a head injury and time is of the essence,” said Louk.
Ricarda Louk: “We are so completely in the dark”
According to her family, 22-year-old Shani Louk was kidnapped in the terrorist attack on Israel last weekend. She was taken hostage by the Islamist Hamas at a music festival in Israel’s Negev desert. Shani Louk’s family, some of whom live in Baden-Württemberg, assume that the young woman is seriously injured but alive and in the Gaza Strip.
The family received this information three days ago “from a trusted person in the Gaza Strip.” She couldn’t say anything more about her source. “Everyone there is in danger,” Louk said. However, no one has yet been able to confirm “one hundred percent” that the information about their daughter is correct.
Ricarda Louk said her family shares all information with the German and Israeli authorities, but receives nothing in return: “We are so completely in the dark and that’s the hardest thing.”
Partner criticizes Baerbock meeting as a “political show”
Her family has now joined forces with other affected people. “It’s not just Shani, but there are many more families affected and terrible fates,” said Louk. “The minister also sees that it is real. These are not stories, these are real fates and people and children and grandmothers who were kidnapped.” (…) “It’s unimaginable and the whole world needs to know it.”
The federal government has assured the family of support, said Wilfried Gehr, the partner of Shani’s aunt Orly Louk. Both are currently in Sulz am Neckar in Baden-Württemberg. However, there were no concrete results from the meeting. Gehr criticized the conversation as a “political show”: The families were merely used as “extras” but didn’t do enough to free the prisoners, he said.
After crisis talks in Egypt, Foreign Minister Baerbock urgently appealed to Hamas to release all hostages kidnapped from Israel. The federal government is aware of eight cases of German nationals among those abducted, including most of them dual nationals, said the Green politician after a meeting with her Egyptian colleague Samih Schukri in the capital Cairo. All channels are being used “to obtain information about whose hands the hostages are and to do everything possible to ensure that these innocent people are released,” added the Federal Foreign Minister.