Parents of Shani Louk Speak Out After Identifying Daughter’s Body Seven Months After Gaza Conflict

Shani Louk was seen lying face down in the back of a pick-up truck filled with armed Hamas men before being declared dead. The parents of the Israeli-German girl, who was killed amid the conflict in Gaza last year, have spoken about identifying their daughter’s body seven months after her murder. Shani Louk’s remains were recovered in Rafah by Israeli soldiers on Friday, alongside the bodies of two other war hostages.

Shani Louk was paraded naked by Hamas men before being declared dead during the war between Israeli and Hamas forces in Gaza. Her parents expressed a sense of relief now that their daughter’s remains have been returned to Israel following the October 7 attack, which included a massacre at the music festival Shani attended. “The body is back, we can bury her. It’s a little bit of relief knowing where her body is and that she will be buried here in Israel,” Shani’s mother, Ricarda Louk, told The New York Post.

Shani’s father, Nissim Louk, described it as “a miracle.” “The body that we have now is complete and beautiful and looks like she’s alive actually,” he said, speaking to The New York Post on Friday. He added, “I think she’d been in one of the tunnels which was very, very cold…that’s why the body is complete and beautiful and the skin is still the same color, you still see the tattoos, it’s amazing.”

Thousands of young people gathered at the festival near the Re’im kibbutz close to the Gaza border on October 6 and 7. Fighters from the Palestinian militant group Hamas crossed into Israel and killed over 360 people at the festival, The Post reported. “This terrible loss is heartbreaking… We will return all of our hostages, both the living and the deceased,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement following the announcement.

According to AFP, the victims of the Nova festival made up nearly a third of the approximately 1,170 people killed in the October 7 attack. Of the 252 people taken hostage that day, 125 are still being held inside the Gaza Strip, including 37 whom the army says are dead. Israel’s military retaliation has killed at least 35,272 people. The Hostages Families Forum described the recovery of the bodies as a “painful and stark reminder that we must swiftly bring back all our brothers and sisters from their cruel captivity.”