A 23-year-old German-Israeli woman who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival by Hamas militants on October 7 has been declared dead, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are devastated to share that the body of 23 year old German-Israeli Shani (Louk) was found and identified,\u201d the ministry posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Monday. <\/p>\n
The bone fragment was from the\u00a0petrous part of the temporal bone, which is at the base of the skull, normally near the\u00a0carotid artery, a major blood vessel that provides blood to the brain.\u00a0A DNA test\u00a0concluded\u00a0the fragment\u00a0belonged to\u00a0Louk. <\/p>\n
Louk\u00a0was attending the festival in southern Israel on October 7 when Hamas breached the border between Gaza and Israel. <\/p>\n
Louk was kidnapped at the festival and \u201ctortured and paraded around Gaza by Hamas terrorists,\u201d the foreign ministry statement said, adding that she \u201cexperienced unfathomable horrors.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cMay her memory be a blessing,\u201d the statement said. <\/p>\n
The bone fragment, combined with the circumstances surrounding the October 7 attack and video that appeared to show\u00a0Louk\u00a0unconscious on the back of a Hamas truck, led investigators to conclude these were her remains. <\/p>\n
Militants blocked off the road to the festival from the north and the south during their October 7 attack, before swarming the sprawling site on foot, videos from the site showed. <\/p>\n
They then encircled the crowds on three sides, gunning them down and forcing them to flee over fields to the east. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt looks very bad, but I still have hope. I hope that they don\u2019t take bodies for negotiations. I hope that she\u2019s still alive somewhere. We don\u2019t have anything else to hope for, so I try to believe,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
The body of Louk, a dual Israeli-German citizen, was seen on video seemingly unconscious on the back of a Hamas truck after the music festival attack. <\/p>\n
Her mother added\u00a0that she had sought support from the German government in helping free her daughter. \u201cI don\u2019t understand really how such a brutal thing can just happen in the middle of the day and it was a complete surprise,\u201d\u00a0Louk\u00a0said. <\/p>\n
A number of hostages were also taken back to Gaza. The latest figure of hostages believed to be held by Hamas in the enclave is up to\u00a0239, Israeli military spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said on Sunday. <\/p>\n
A female Israeli soldier who had been kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 was released during ground operations in Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces said Monday. <\/p>\n
\ufeffThe IDF added that \u201cthe soldier was medically checked, is doing well, and has met with her family.\u201d <\/p>\n
Four hostages had previously been released \u2013 an American woman and her daughter, and later an 85-year-old Israeli woman and her 79-year-old friend. <\/p>\n
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under increasing pressure from the families of hostages for a \u201ccomprehensive deal\u201d to ensure their release. These calls are becoming more urgent amid concerns for what Israel\u2019s expanding ground operations could mean for the safety of hostages trapped in Gaza. <\/p>\n
Netanyahu met with families of the hostages in Tel Aviv on Saturday, where they demanded answers on the security of their loved ones and pushed him to secure the hostages\u2019 freedom, as Israel\u2019s offensive escalated. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe spoke bluntly and made it clear to the prime minister in no uncertain terms that a comprehensive deal based on the \u2018everyone for everyone\u2019 principle is a deal the families would consider, and has the support of all of Israel,\u201d Meirav Leshem Gonen, mother of Romi Gonen, who was\u00a0kidnapped from the festival, said on behalf of the families in a news conference following the meeting. <\/p>\n
An \u201ceveryone for everyone\u201d deal would involve the release of the hostages in exchange for Palestinians currently held in Israeli prisons, which the nongovernmental organization Palestinian Prisoners Club estimates to be 6,630 people. <\/p>\n
On Monday, Hamas released a short video showing three women who are believed to be captives held by the Palestinian militant group. <\/p>\n
The video shows them seated in plastic chairs facing the camera, while the woman in the middle addresses Netanyahu directly with increasing fury. She makes reference to a press conference by families of the hostages \u201cyesterday,\u201d suggesting it was filmed on Monday. <\/p>\n\n
A 23-year-old German-Israeli woman who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival by Hamas militants on October 7 has been declared dead, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said. \u201cWe are devastated to share that the body of 23 year old German-Israeli Shani (Louk) was found and identified,\u201d the ministry posted on X, formerly <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":10898,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10897","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}