Shani Louk she was German-Israeli, loved music, loved to travel and lived in Tel Aviv, Israel. On the night of Friday, October 6, 2023, he went to a music festival with his friends. According to El Periódico, she was accompanied by Orión Hernández, her Mexican boyfriend.

That wasn’t just any festival, it was dedicated to peace. Against that peace that was tarnished in a frightening and unexpected way by Hamas, the Islamic group of extreme Palestinian origin that does not recognize the State of Israel, DW recalled.

Horror at Israel’s rave festival

Shani Louk and hundreds of young people danced and enjoyed the rave party, where they were surprised by the first rays of sunshine on October 7, 2023. They were in the Negev Desert and close to both the kibbutz (Jewish community) of Re’im from the Gaza Strip, noted EFE op.

Within seconds, confusion reigned. The festival “was immediately interrupted by the siren warning of a rocket attack armed militia groups on board vans They opened fire in all directions”, described the Spanish agency.

She had gone with her dreadlocks to enjoy herself, but the brutality with which the Hamas people stormed in made her one of the first visible faces of the dead left behind by this war, another wound for humanity.

Israel declares a state of war after multiple attacks from Gaza

In videos capturing the dramatic moments, festivalgoers can be seen running. What followed was disturbing: Hamas militants chased and overtook several young men. Some were killed. The others were taken hostage, the media reported.

The hostage taking, CNN en Español reported, “at the music festival in southern Israel was part of a sustained and coordinated attack carried out by Hamas militants.”

Shani was one of the victims of the bloody beginning of the conflict between Israel and Palestine.

On the afternoon of Sunday, October 8, Israeli emergency services in the desert area near the Gaza Strip reported a preliminary and devastating toll: “at least 260 bodies had been recovered,” EFE reported.

Shani Louk, war trophy

Shani’s whereabouts were unknown and her mother appeared in a video. The message was direct and desperate: “I ask for all help,” 20 Minutos quoted her as saying.

Ricarda said on Saturday: “This morning my daughter, Shani Nicole Louk, a German citizen, was kidnapped along with a group of tourists in southern Israel by (the) Palestinian Hamas.”

“They sent us a video in which I could clearly see our daughter unconscious in the car with the Palestinians as they drove through the Gaza Strip,” the parent added.

The video spread around the world and caused consternation and outrage. Shanik’s body lay face down in the back of a truck. Armed men placed their feet on the corpse. They screamed.

The material he referred to was described by El Periódico as follows: (…) it showed the humiliation and violence to which the kidnapped civilians were exposed. They displayed the body of Shani, a German ‘influencer’, as a trophy for barbarism. She appears to be lying half-naked, surrounded by several armed men, one of whom spits on her.”

When her family members saw the terrifying video, they had no doubt it was her.

We recognized her by her tattoos and long dreadlocks.

Tom Weintraub Louk, cousin of Shani a Proceso

More than a thousand dead in two days of fighting between Israel and Hamas

Ricarda and her family thought – they preferred to think – that the young woman was unconscious at the time of the video. So the woman begged, “I ask you to send us help or news.”

El Periódico reported to the weekly Der Spiegel that Shani’s mother said they could talk the day before.

“He called her on the phone to inform her of the attacks and ask her to run to a shelter (…),” he said.

He told the press that the only clue he had was that “his credit card was used after his disappearance in Gaza.”

The organisation Action and communication in the Middle East expressed on the The terrorists then had time to do that take out your credit card and make purchases on the Strip itself (from Gaza).”

The pain and despair of parents like Shani’s

Ricarda Louk informed the aforementioned German media that she lives with her husband, an Israeli, about 80 kilometers from the Gaza Strip.

She recalled that “she arrived in Israel thirty years ago, got married, converted to Judaism and had four children with her husband.”

Shani was his second daughter. “The young woman lived alone in Tel Aviv.” There are conflicting data about his age: some media say 20 years; For example, in El Periódico they say 22 years. And in AS they said 30 years.

The girl “has never lived in Germany, but she knows the country from her visits to her grandparents in Bavaria. He retained his mother nationality, El Periódico also published

What happened to Shani, according to Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari, “is a war crime committed by Hamas and they will bear the consequences,” he said, according to Proceso.

The whereabouts of Orión Hernández, Shani’s boyfriend, were unknown until Sunday afternoon, October 8.

There are dozens of parents like the relatives of Ricarda Louk and Orion. One told EFE on Sunday: “I came to save my daughter, she has been kidnapped in Gaza. “I saw a Tik Tok where she appears to be surrounded by terrorists.” (JO)