The father of German-Israeli Shani Louk said finally being able to lay his daughter to rest would be a gift after her body was found in Gaza, months after she was killed in Hamas attack against Israel on October 7.
Louk, a 22-year-old tattoo artist, was partying with friends at the Nova music festival in Israel before it was attacked by gunmen, who massacred some 360 revelers, while carrying out rapes and other atrocities.
His body was soon seen in a video, hanging from the back of a van, surrounded by armed men and paraded through Gaza.
On Friday, the Israeli army informed her parents, Nissim and Ricarda Louk, that their daughter’s body had been found by Israeli commandos in Gaza. Nissim Louk indicated that to be sure, he had viewed photos. He praised the “brave soldiers” who found his body.
“We also saw the tattoos on his hands,” he said Saturday. “Now she will have her own place next to us and we can go there whenever we want. And she can rest.
He specified that the funeral will take place on Sunday, Ricarda Louk’s birthday.
“I think Shani said, ‘Let’s give my mother a birthday present and go back and be near her,'” he added.
Nissim Louk speaks on Channel 12 news, May 17, 2024. (Channel 12 screen capture)
Having Shani’s grave nearby would be a comfort, Ricarda Louk said.
“Maybe we will find more peace,” she said.
Nissim Louk said it was also comforting to know Shani was doing what she loved most before she died and was probably not in pain. She was declared dead by Israeli authorities in late October after a piece of her skull was found.
Shani was among more than 360 people who were shot, bludgeoned or burned alive during the Nova festival on October 7.
Videos of Shani smiling at the party, just before the attack, surfaced in the following weeks.
“She danced all night. She was so happy,” said Nissim Louk. “She never thought there was evil in the world because she was a free spirit. She only saw him for a few seconds.
Ricarda Louk said she was pained by what she saw as the ignorance and misinformation displayed during some protests on U.S. campuses against Israel’s war in Gaza.
“It’s horrible for us to see,” she said. “We can tell you this from our own experience. We lost our daughter in this massacre.
“No amount of ‘resistance’ can justify what happened here,” she said.
In addition to Louk, the IDF also found the bodies of Itzhak Gelerenter and Amit Buskila in Gaza on Friday, previously presumed alive.
From left to right: Itzhak Gelerenter, Amit Buskila and Shani Louk. (Courtesy)
In total, Hamas terrorists killed some 1,200 people on October 7, most of them civilians, and kidnapped 252.
An estimated 125 hostages kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza – not all alive; some were released, a few were released and several bodies were found.
In response to the massacre, Israel declared war on Hamas. Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry says more than 35,000 people have been killed or presumed dead in the fighting so far, including 24,000 identified in hospitals. The toll, which cannot be verified, includes some 15,000 terrorists whom Israel claims to have killed in combat. Israel also claims to have killed some 1,000 terrorists in Israel on October 7.
News Source : www.timesofisrael.com
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