Shani Louk’s family blast German government for ignoring their plea for help – after they were told she is still alive in Gaza after being abducted and paraded on Hamas truck in Israel
- Shani Louk was at musical festival for peace when she was captured by Hamas
- Videos showed her lifeless body being paraded through streets in militant truck
- Now her family are hitting out at German government for perceived inaction
Family members of missing Shani Louk, whose lifeless body was paraded by Hamas gunmen after the Nova rave attack in Israel, have blasted the German government for ignoring their pleas for help after they were told she was still alive in Gaza.
Louk’s aunt Orly Louk and her uncle Wilfried Gehr today pleaded with the German government in a television interview on the programme ‘ZDF heute’.
‘We’ve been begging the German government to help for three days now.
‘We are unsettled and totally disappointed that the Federal Government does not feel responsible. One from the Foreign Office said he doesn’t have time because they have to rebook flights. That makes me so angry.’
Shani, 22, is German but grew up in Israel, and was one of hundreds of unsuspecting partygoers at the Nova festival where Hamas conducted a massacre of some 260 civilians.
According to ‘Der Spiegel’ magazine, the tattoo artist and pacifist has never lived in Germany, but has a German passport and visited her grandparents in Ravensburg in the southern German state of Baden-Württemberg several times.
It comes one day after Shani’s mother Ricarda – a Catholic who later converted to Judaism and emigrated to Israel – revealed she received word from Palestine that her daughter is still alive.
The news provided fresh hope after videos emerged of an unconscious and partially naked Shani being paraded through the streets by Hamas terrorists as onlookers spat on her motionless body.
Shani Louk, 22 (pictured), was at a music festival for peace when she was captured by Hamas terrorists who had stormed the event and massacred 260 Israeli revellers during their assault on Israel
Shani Louk (right) is pictured alongside her cousin
Shocking footage shared on social media appears to show Palestinian fighters parading Shani’s partially naked body on the back of a pick-up truck
Orly Louk, aunt of 22-year-old Shani Louk, sits on a couch and shows a photo of her niece as she hits out at the German government’s indifference to her predicament
Shani, 22, is German but grew up in Israel, and was one of hundreds of unsuspecting partygoers at the Nova festival where Hamas conducted a massacre of some 260 civilians
Ricarda Louk told German outlet Bild on Tuesday: ‘We now have evidence that Shani is alive but has a serious head injury and is in critical condition. Every minute is critical.
‘You have to act quickly and get Shani out of the Gaza Strip!’ she declared in the message directed at German officials. We shouldn’t argue about questions of jurisdiction now!’
Orly said Shani had refused to take up the military service that is mandatory for Israelis due to her pacifist views, adding that her German passport helped with this.
Ricarda earlier released a heartbreaking video begging for help to find out what happened to her daughter.
Holding a picture of Shani on her mobile phone, Ricarda said on Sunday: ‘This morning my daughter, Shani Nicole Louk, a German citizen, was kidnapped with a group of tourists in southern Israel by Palestinian Hamas.
‘We were sent a video in which I could clearly see our daughter unconscious in the car with the Palestinians and them driving around the Gaza Strip.
‘I ask you to send us any help or any news. Thank you very much.’
Video shows a smiling Shani, who loved to travel according to her family, dancing at the music festival moments before she was captured by the terrorists
Shani’s mother, Ricarda, holds up a picture of her daughter on her mobile phone in an emotional video appeal begging for help to find out what happened to her daughter
Shani, who grew up in Israel but had a German passport, had refused to take up the military service that is mandatory for Israelis due to her views
Hamas had claimed the body was a female Israeli soldier – but it was confirmed to be Shani by her cousin Tomasina Weintraub-Louk, who told MailOnline that the family recognised her distinctive leg tattoos and dreadlocked hair.
She said: ‘We have heard nothing. We are hoping for positive news. It is definitely Shani.
‘She was at a music festival for peace. This is a nightmare for our family.’
Tomasina said she and other family members had been desperately trying to contact Shani as well as her Mexican boyfriend, but they couldn’t get through.
‘We knew she was in the party, she didn’t answer,’ Tomasina said.
Her parents say they have not heard from their daughter since a phone call early on Saturday, just after Hamas launched their first rockets.
But her family have said they have since received information from her bank that Shani’s credit card had been used in Gaza.
German tattoo artist named Shani Louk, who is in her early 20s, was in Israel to attend a peace rave
Her family, who are desperately hoping that Shani is still alive despite the footage of her body, said she was a pacifist and a peace campaigner who was known for her involvement in organising music festivals
Palestinian fighters can be seen cheering and driving away as Shani’s body lies motionless in the back of the truck
The tragedy comes as Palestinian militants launched its worst onslaught for 50 years on Saturday by unprecedented land, sea and air attacks – even using hang gliders to avoid detection.
In a coordinated, multi-pronged assault, Palestinian terrorists crossed into Israel from the Gaza Strip, seizing settlements and capturing and murdering civilians celebrating a Jewish holiday.
READ MORE: Haunting images reveal chilling aftermath of Nova music festival where 260 people were slaughtered, after volunteers removed hundreds of bodies
Dozens of people are feared to have been snatched off the street and returned to Gaza, or simply killed on the spot.
The music festival attended by Shani was one of the first sites to be attacked by the terrorist group, with 260 revellers massacred there.
Survivors described how the gunmen went ‘tree by tree’ executing victims.
Clips posted to social media show how revellers were forced to hide under bushes and record hushed farewell messages to their loved ones as they watched victims get killed one by one.
Many lay still in sheer terror for more than five hours before they heard the sound of armed rescuers speaking in Hebrew.
The Palestinian terrorist group stormed the Nova Festival that had been taking place near Kibbutz Re’im, close to the Gaza Strip, as part of its surprise assault launched on Saturday.
This morning, harrowing dashcam footage from the incident showed gunmen executing civilians as they lay in the sand before rifling through their pockets and emptying bags from their cars.
Palestinian militants brandish weapons as they pass through Israeli territory on trucks
Israeli civilians and soldiers were taken off the street and driven back into Gaza
In a second video widely shared on social media, a woman screaming ‘Don’t kill me!’ can be seen being driven off on a motorbike by a gunman.
She has since been identified as Noa Argamani, 25, a student who was seized at the same outdoor peace festival she had attended with her boyfriend close to the border.
Esther Borochov, who fled the rave party, said she survived by playing dead in a car after the driver trying to help her escape was shot point blank.
Bodies of Israeli civilians were strewn across the streets of Sderot in southern Israel, near Gaza, surrounded by broken glass. The bodies of a woman and a man were sprawled across the front seats of a car.
‘I went out, I saw loads of bodies of terrorists, civilians, cars shot up. A sea of bodies, inside Sderot along the road, other places, loads of bodies,’ said Shlomi from Sderot.
Terrified Israelis, barricaded into safe rooms, recounted their plight by phone on live TV.
Other footage showed captured soldiers and civilians – some dead – being paraded through Gaza’s streets.
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