The German Public Prosecutor’s Office today opened proceedings against unknown members of the Islamist organization Hamas in connection with the kidnapping and murder of German citizens during Saturday’s attack in southern Israel.

German media have so far reported one confirmed fatality: the 22-year-old student. Caroline Bohl, originally from Berlin, who visited the kibbutz Nir Oz with her partner and whose relatives announced her death on social networks.

Two other women, with dual German and Israeli citizenship, are still missing, including one Shani Louk. According to her family, Shani, who was displayed half-naked and bloodied after the brutal Hamas attack, is still alive but in critical condition.

Apparently Shani She is admitted to a hospital in the Gaza Strip with serious head injuries. “Every minute is crucial,” the mother said, according to several international media, after asking the German government for help. “This is truly my desperate appeal to the entire country, to Germany, to help me bring my Shani back home healthy.”

Hours after the video with Shani’s image was shown on social networks, Ricarda Louk received an email alert about the use of the credit card his son was carrying. The issuing bank reported no charges, but warned against the use of that card Sunday afternoon in a store opposite the “Indonesian Hospital,” the main one in Gaza.

The tabloid ‘Bild’ also refers to the case of Doron Katz-Asher, kidnapped along with her two daughters, aged three and five, and their grandmother, who recognized her husband in a video released by Hamas.

Authorities in Berlin have not yet provided official figures on the number of German citizens missing after the attack, but Chancellor Olaf Scholz said today that his government is working “intensively” to clarify their whereabouts.

Ines Peterson, spokesperson for the Public Prosecution Service in Karlsruhe (south), told EFE that the investigations are based on allegations of “integration into a foreign terrorist group, hostage-taking and murder.” (JO)