Simon Behr

If you forgot this video, you forgot the tragic death of 22-year-old Shani Louk on October 7th. Shani Louk's brother hasn't seen his sister in over three years. Why? Because Shani was murdered by Hamas. Murdered during the October 7th terror attack in Israel. Nearly 1,200 people — mostly all Jewish Israelis — were murdered that day. During after the October 7th attack, Shani was kidnapped from a music festival in Israel during a shabbat holiday. A video of her body in the back of a pickup truck in Gaza circulated on social media later that day; it was unclear if she was dead or alive when the footage was taken, but Shani did not survive the ordeal. She leaves behind a sister named Adi and parents. “It is with great sadness that we announce the death of my sister, Shani Nicole Z.L. , who was on October 7, 2023, at the party massacre in Re’im,” Adi wrote on Instagram. Initially, Louk’s mother Ricarda said she believed her daughter was alive and being held in a hospital in Gaza, but informed German television on Sunday that her daughter was no longer alive, according to the Guardian. A cousin of Louk’s told the Guardian that the family received an official notice from the IDF and Zaka that a bone from the base of Louk’s skull had been found and matched with Louk’s DNA. Doctors determined that a person cannot live without the found bone and concluded that Louk could not possibly still be alive. The determination of death was conducted by the Israeli National Institute of Forensic Medicine. Shani was a tattoo artist, daughter, fashion model and dual-citizen of Germany and Israel. She also ran a small business doing dreadlocks and hair care. The Chancellor of Germany said in a statement: “For me, this news is terrible,” Olaf Scholz said “This shows all the barbarism that lies behind Hamas.” Shani became an icon but she was more than her death, she loved life, lived to the fullest, and loved her family. This case highlights the tragedy that befalls innocent civilians when terrorism strikes.