Israeli-German girl Shani Louk’s parents describe finding daughter’s body months after her killing in Gaza

The parents of an Israeli-German girl, who got killed amid war in Gaza last year, spoke about identifying their daughter’s body seven months after her murder. Shani Louk’s remains were recovered in Rafah by Israeli soldiers on Friday amid the bodies of two other war hostages.

Shani Louk was seen lying with her face down in the back of a pick-up truck filled with armed Hamas men before being declared dead amid a war between Israeli and Hamas forces in Gaza. She was paraded naked by Hamas men.

Shani’s parents expressed relief that their daughter’s remains have been returned to Israel following the October 7 attack, which included a killing spree at the music festival Shani attended. “The body is back, we can bury her. It’s a little bit of relief we know where her body is and that she will be here in Israel buried,” said Shani’s mother, Ricarda Louk, told The New York Post.

Meanwhile, Shani Louk’s father, Nissim Louk, considered it “a miracle.” “The body that we have now is complete and beautiful and looks like she’s alive actually,” said Shani’s father, Nissim Louk, speaking to the New York Post on Friday.

“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 colour, you still see the tattoos, it’s amazing,” he added.

Thousands of young people gathered at the festival held 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 after the announcement.

The Nova festival victims made up nearly a third of the approximately 1,170 people killed in the October 7 attack, AFP said in its report. 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. Meanwhile, Israel’s devastating 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.”

(With inputs from AFP)