Mother of Shani Louk, taken by Hamas, says her daughter’s alive

The mother of a 22-year-old German woman, who had attended an Israeli music festival and is suspected to be the person shown in a widely circulated video being moved through Gaza by Hamas militants, informed NewsNation that she has received information suggesting her daughter is alive and currently in a hospital. Ricarda Louk, the mother of tattoo artist Shani Louk, who was kidnapped by Hamas, told NewsNation’s Connell McShane she heard the news from a friend with a reliable source, and they passed the information along to authorities in both Israel and Germany.

“We received reports from Gaza yesterday indicating that she is alive and receiving medical care at a hospital,” stated Ricarda Louk. “She has suffered severe head injuries, but she is still alive.”

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What is Hamas? 

The family hasn’t heard back from Germany or Israel about the possibility of a rescue for Shani Louk at the time of publication of this report. However, Ricarda Louk says she has a point of contact with the German government with whom she’s been talking “day and night.”“They’re very available, they centralize all the data,” Ricarda Louk said. There are many details the family still doesn’t have.

Shani Louk was attending an Israeli music festival when the event was targeted in an attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas on Saturday. This incident led to Israel declaring a state of war, and the conflict has resulted in a significant loss of lives with thousands of casualties since then.

On the morning of the attack, Ricarda Louk says she awoke to sirens and immediately worried about her daughter. When contacted, Shani told her mom she was still at the music festival but would drive to a safe location nearby.

“She was a little bit panicked,” Ricarda Louk recalled. “In the beginning, we didn’t think a lot about it, she said she will be OK, she knows where to go.”

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Shani Louk: A Music Lover’s Tragic Ordeal

But after that conversation, she stopped answering phone calls from her family.

Then, Shani’s friend sent the family the disturbing video that went viral — a half-naked, unconscious and injured woman lying face down in the back of a pickup truck in the Gaza Strip. One militant had a leg draped over her body. Another held her by the dreadlocks in her hair. The Louk family identified the woman as Shani, pointing to the distinct tattoos on her legs that were bent at an unusual angle, indicating they may be broken. She also had visible injuries to her head, where she was bleeding.

Hearing Shani Louk might be in the hospital gives the family “a little bit more hope,” Ricarda Louk said, especially at a time when it’s still “very chaotic” in Israel with officials tending to the dead and missing.

“The whole country is very busy and (there are no) no resources, so it’s very difficult to get help regarding the kidnapped people,” Ricarda Louk said. “We want to take care of my daughter and try to get her out as soon as possible.”

For Ricarda Louk, the tragedy of Shani’s circumstance was that she was kidnapped at the music festival, where she was doing what she loved.

“She’s a very happy person,” Ricarda Louk said. “She likes music, she likes dancing, she has many friends all over the world.”

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