"Still considered a hostage"

Shani Louk’s mother is still waiting for her body

Six months after the terrorist attack on Israel by Islamist Hamas, the family of German-Israeli Shani Louk is still waiting for the young woman's body. The remains of her daughter are still in the Gaza Strip, Louk's mother told WDR. "She is still considered a hostage. Her body is still being held there," explained Ricarda Louk in an interview published on Friday.

Her relatives had held a funeral service after the Israeli armed forces informed them of the young woman's death, but there has still not been a funeral. "We are still waiting to get the body back after all. We will wait a year, until October 7. If the body comes back, then we will have a proper funeral, if not, we will probably put up an empty grave," Louk continued.

It is unclear what happened to Shani's boyfriend
Meanwhile, she continues to hope that Shani Louk's boyfriend Orion will be released alive from Hamas hostage-taking. Her daughter had actually wanted to introduce him to her in October, but then the massacre took place.

Louk wanted to celebrate and dance like thousands of other young people at the Supernova Festival in southern Israel on the night of October 7. But the festival ended in the Hamas bloodbath. Several hundred people were killed at the party in the Negev desert alone - in total, the terrorists killed more than 1200 people. The Louk family assumes that the body of the 22-year-old was taken to the Gaza Strip. The family is convinced of her death because fragments of a vital skull bone were found and used to take a DNA sample.