German woman, kidnapped by Hamas from music festival and paraded naked, found dead; Israel says...

The Israeli government on Monday informed that the body of a 23-year-old German tattoo artist who was kidnapped and paraded around by Hamas was found and identified. Shani Luk was kidnapped from a music festival and tortured and paraded around Gaza by Hamas following a brutal attack on Israel on October 7. She experienced unfathomable horrors, the Israeli government said in a tweet. "Our hearts are broken. May her memory be a blessing." 

Luk was believed to be among 200-plus people Hamas abducted after the raids on Israel. She was present at the Supernova music festival, which was stormed by Hamas terrorists who killed 260 festival goers there and abducted many others. On the day of the attack, a video footage appeared on social media in which a half-naked woman lying seemingly unconscious was seen taken away by Hamas militants in the back of a pick-up truck.  

Luk's mother Ricarda Louk first raised the alarm about her daughter after she recognised her in the videos circulating online, due to her striking tattoos and dyed hair, The Times of Israel reported.

According to another report, while it was unclear if she was alive in the video, Louk's mother stated a few days later that she was alive and being held in a hospital in Gaza. "Unfortunately we received the news yesterday that my daughter is no longer alive," Ricarda told the German outlet RTL.

Luk was reported missing by her first cousin Tomasina Weintraub-Luk. "It is definitely Shani. She was at a music festival for peace. This is a nightmare for our family," she had said. 

The music festival, which Shani had attended, was reportedly one of the first sites to be attacked by Hamas. She was captured by Hamas militants and paraded through the streets in the back of a pickup truck. Shani's family had said they had received information from her bank that her credit card had been used in Gaza, suggesting that she might have been robbed.

Days after the attack, Shani Luk's mother said a family friend in Gaza told her that her daughter was alive in a Hamas hospital. "We now have information that Shani is alive but has a serious head injury and is in critical condition. Every minute is critical. And we ask...no, we demand the German government to act quickly," Ricarda said in the video.