Remains of young woman kidnapped at Gaza music festival, paraded through streets reported found

Shani Louk, the German-Israeli tattoo artist who was kidnapped at a music festival during Hama's Oct. 7 terror attacks, is dead, officials said Monday.

"We are devastated to share that the death of 23 year old German-Israeli Shani [Louk] was confirmed," the Israel Foreign Ministry posted on the social media site X.

The ministry also said Louk had been tortured and "experienced unfathomable horrors," at the hands of the Hamas terrorists.

Part of her skull was found as Israel ramps up its incursion into the northern Gaza Strip, after Hamas terrorists killed over 1,400 people, including at least 31 U.S. citizens, and kidnapped over 200 others. 

Louk's cousin, identified by the Israeli outlet YNet as Ruti, said the Israel Defense Forces and Zaka, a Jewish group dedicated to aiding and identifying terror victims, told Louk's family "that a bone was found from the base of the skull, which is identical to Shani's DNA. The doctors determined that a person cannot live without this bone, so they concluded that she was dead."

An unverified video circulated on social media short after the attacks early last month appeared to show Louk's body being paraded on the back of a truck in Gaza after she attended the festival, at which over 260 people were repreotedly killed. 

Her family had hoped that she was still alive because it is unclear from the graphic video whether Louk was dead. Her mother, Richarda Louk, suggested several days after her daughter's kidnapping she may be alive in a hospital in Gaza.

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