Israel’s army has recovered the bodies of three hostages in the Gaza Strip, including that of German-Israeli Shani Louk. All three of those killed had attended the music festival in southern Israel on October 7th, which Hamas brutally attacked.
The Israeli army says it has found the bodies of three hostages in the Gaza Strip. Among them is the body of the German-Israeli Shani Louk. Louk was declared dead at the end of October.
“Last night, Israeli troops rescued the bodies of our hostages Shani Louk, Amit Buskila and Itzhak Gelerenter,” army spokesman Daniel Hagari said on Israeli television. The three were taken hostage in the Hamas massacre on October 7th and “brutally murdered” as they fled the Nova music festival.
“Use based on intelligence information”
Their bodies were recovered that night during a special operation by the army and the domestic intelligence service Shin Bet in the Gaza Strip. It was an operation based on intelligence information. The military initially left it open where the remains were found. After the dead were identified, the families were informed.
“We will continue to fight to bring the hostages home,” Hagari said. The Israeli army had already reported Louk’s death at the end of October, but there was uncertainty about the fate of the other two hostages.
Shani Louk’s mother, Ricarda Louk, said at the time that a sliver of a skull bone had been found and a DNA sample had been taken with it. If you injured this inner skull bone, you would no longer be able to live, the mother said at the time. The parents had provided the authorities with the necessary DNA comparison material a long time ago.
Picture of Louk on Transporter went around the world
Images and videos that circulated online after the terrorist attack showed the young woman’s body on the attackers’ pickup truck. Her family said they recognized the young woman in the photos and shortly afterwards turned to the public to ask for help.
Initially, Shani Louk’s family, some of whom live in Baden-Württemberg, assumed that the young woman was seriously injured in the head in the attack, but was alive and in the Gaza Strip.
Israel currently assumes there are still 100 hostages
Thousands of people had attended the Nova festival when Hamas attacked. The terrorists killed several hundred people at the festival in the Negev desert alone. In total, they killed 1,200 people in the attack on October 7th.
During the attack they also abducted around 250 people to the Gaza Strip. Around half of the hostages have since been released, mostly in return for the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli custody. Israel assumes that around 100 hostages are still being held in the Gaza Strip, and Hamas is also said to have around 30 bodies of those abducted.
In Israel, thousands of people regularly demonstrate for the release of the hostages still in the Gaza Strip – they demand that the Israeli government do more to free their relatives and friends from Hamas’s grip. Negotiations over a hostage deal were recently deadlocked.
Bettina Meier, ARD Tel Aviv, tagesschau, May 17, 2024 6:27 p.m