The young German-Israeli tattoo artist who was paraded through the streets of Gaza after being kidnapped by Hamas has been found dead after “sadistic” terrorists “chopped off her head,” Israel’s president revealed Monday.
“I am truly sorry to report that we have now received news that Shani Nicole Louk has been confirmed murdered and dead,” President Isaac Herzog told the German newspaper Bild.
“Her skull was found,” he said, with the 23-year-old victim’s family also confirming that the death was confirmed by DNA on parts of her skull.
“This means that these barbaric, sadistic animals simply chopped off her head as they attacked, tortured and killed Israelis.
“It is a great tragedy and I extend my deepest condolences to her family,” the president said, according to a translation by i24 News.
“What we saw on the Gaza-Israel border goes far beyond a pogrom. We saw a slaughterhouse,” he said.
“We saw the blood flowing in the streets. We have seen the most horrific tragedies imaginable,” Herzog concluded.
Louk, 23, became a symbol of the horrors of Hamas when terrorists snatched her from the festival near Kibbutz Re’im as more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, were killed Oct. 7.
The tattoo artist’s mom, Ricarda Louk, also confirmed that she had been informed of her daughter’s death, she told German news agency dpa on Monday.
Despite getting earlier news that her daughter had survived the initial attack, her mom now believes she was actually killed the same day, possibly shot in the head.
“At least she didn’t suffer,” Ricarda Louk told German broadcaster RTL/ntv.
She said her daughter’s body has yet to be found, but a splinter of a skull bone was located and submitted for a DNA test that confirmed her death.
Louk’s sister, Adi, also posted an emoji of a broken heart as she shared with “great sadness” the news that her sister was killed in the “festival of blood at Re’im.”
Over 260 were killed at the site of the Tribe of Nova dance rave in the Negev Desert music festival, according to Israeli rescue service Zaka.
As terrorists inundated the festival, Louk called her mother to tell her she was trying to get to her car to leave. Hours later, Shani’s family came across disturbing footage of her seemingly lifeless body lying in the back of a pickup truck surrounded by armed men.
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The armed men chanted “Allahu Akbar” — Arabic for “God is great” — as they paraded Shani’s body around, eventually taking her into the Gaza Strip, the video shows.
Louk, a tattoo artist, had lived in Israel but spent part of her childhood in Portland, Oregon, where she attended kindergarten at the Jewish Portland Academy.
With Post wires
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