A photo of Shani Louk posted on her Instagram four weeks ago. shanukkk/Instagram
- The mother of a woman whose body was found roaming the streets has appealed for help finding her.
- A video showed half-naked German tattoo artist Shani Louk in the back of a pickup truck.
- Louk was attending a dance festival when Hamas attacked. It is not known whether she is still alive.
The mother of a woman whose body was paraded through the streets by Hamas has appealed for help in finding her daughter.
A video showing German tattoo artist Shani Louk in the back of a pickup truck circulated on social media after the Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7.
Louk had been attending an open-air Festival for Peace party near Kibbutz Urim when the area came under attack. Rockets were fired first, then gunmen appeared and fired into the crowd, CNN reported. Party attendees told the outlet that people immediately began fleeing, passing bodies on the ground as they tried to escape the massacre.
The attack and resulting conflict killed hundreds of Israelis and Palestinians, and the Israeli prime minister declared war.
Shortly after the attack, a video circulated on social media of a young woman with dreadlocks in the back of a pickup truck surrounded by Hamas soldiers. In it, she appears naked except for her underwear, her legs bent at unnatural angles while a soldier grabs her by the hair. People are also seen spitting on their bodies.
Her face is not shown, but her distinctive dreadlocks and tattoos helped her family identify her as Louk, according to the Washington Post.
Louk’s mother, Ricarda Louk, shared a video, which was also shared on social media, in which she asked for more information about the fate of her daughter, who is in her early 20s and has dual German-Israeli citizenship.
“This morning my daughter Shani Louk, a German citizen who was traveling with a group of tourists in southern Israel, was kidnapped by the Palestinian Hamas. “I was sent a video in which I could clearly see my daughter unconscious in a car with Palestinians,” she said in German, which Insider translated. “Please send us help or news. Thank you.”
Louk’s cousin, Tom Weintraub Louk spoke to The Washington Post and said the family tried to contact Louk after news of the attack spread.
“We knew she was in the party. She didn’t respond,” he said.
It is currently unknown if she is still alive.
“We have some kind of hope,” Tom said. “Hamas is responsible for them and the others.”
On Louk’s Instagram, where she has 36,000 followers, she describes herself as a tattoo artist and hairdresser. Her posts show her traveling the world, attending festivals, and spreading spiritual messages.
The comments under her photos are now full of messages hoping she is alive and condemning the war and the actions of Hamas militants in the video.
“One day you’re having fun at the festival, the next day the whole world is watching your lifeless body behind the pickup truck on the internet… scary and brutal,” one comment read. “My only wish is that those who did this do not go unpunished.”
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