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CRIME

German-Israeli woman captured by Hamas confirmed dead

Shani Louk, a 23-year-old German-Israeli woman captured by Hamas fighters when they stormed a music festival in the Israeli desert, is dead, Israel's foreign ministry said Monday.

Shani Louk
Ricarda Louk displays a photo of her daughter Shani. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Christoph Soeder

“Our hearts are broken,” the ministry wrote in a message on X, formerly Twitter, as it confirmed Louk’s death.

“Shani, who was kidnapped from a music festival and tortured and paraded around Gaza by Hamas terrorists, experienced unfathomable horrors,” it said. “May her memory be a blessing.”

Louk had been missing since Hamas fighters stormed the Supernova rave near the Gaza border as they carried out the worst attack in Israel’s history.

READ ALSO: Germany opens probe into kidnap and murder of its citizens by Hamas

Around 270 festivalgoers were killed.

Shortly after the attack, images began circulating online of a young woman lying face down and nearly naked in the back of a pick-up truck in Gaza filled with armed men.

Louk’s family said they recognised Shani in the footage because of her dreadlocks and distinctive tattoos.

The family initially held out hope she had been badly injured and was receiving hospital treatment in Gaza.

Louk’s sister Adi spoke of her “great sorrow” as she shared the news of Shani’s death on Instagram.

Their mother, Ricarda Louk, told German media they had been informed of Shani’s death by the Israeli military.

German-born Ricarda Louk, who moved to Israel three decades ago, told the RTL/NTV broadcasters her daughter had been identified through DNA analysis of a skull bone.

She said she now believed her daughter was killed on the day of the attack.

No official information was given about the circumstances of Louk’s death.

But Israeli President Isaac Herzog told Germany’s Bild daily that Louk’s “skull has been found”.

In the October 7 attacks, Hamas militants killed more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli authorities. Another 239 people were taken hostage.

In retaliation, Israel began a relentless bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

Since then, the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip says more than 8,300 Palestinians have been killed, mostly civilians and among them almost 3,500 children.

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ANTI-SEMITISM

Germany sees sharp rise in anti-Semitic acts

Anti-Semitic acts rose sharply in Germany last year, especially after war broke out between Israel and Hamas in Gaza in October, according to new figures released on Tuesday.

Germany sees sharp rise in anti-Semitic acts

The Federal Association of Research and Information Centres on Anti-Semitism (RIAS) documented 4,782 anti-Semitic “incidents” in 2023 – an increase of more than 80 per cent on the previous year.

More than half of the incidents – which included threats, physical attacks and vandalism – were registered after Palestinian militant group Hamas’s unprecedented October 7th attack on Israel, RIAS said.

Germany’s domestic intelligence agency last week also published figures showing a new record in anti-Semitic crimes in 2023.

A total of 5,164 crimes were recorded during the year, the agency said, compared with 2,641 in 2022.

Anti-Semitic crimes with a “religious-ideological motivation” jumped to 492 from just 33 the previous year, with the vast majority committed after October 7.

Felix Klein, the government’s commissioner for the fight against anti-Semitism, said the RIAS figures were “absolutely catastrophic”.

The Hamas attack had acted as an “accelerant” for anti-Semitism in Germany, he told a press conference in Berlin.

“Jewish life in Germany is under greater threat than it has ever been since the Federal Republic of Germany was founded,” he said.

The Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 37,600 people, also mostly civilians, Gaza’s health ministry said.

Islamophobic incidents also increased dramatically in Germany last year, according to a separate report published on Monday.

The CLAIM alliance against Islamophobia said it had registered 1,926 attacks on Muslims in 2023, compared with just under 900 in 2023.

These included verbal abuse, discrimination, physical violence and damage to property.

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