Shani Louk among three hostages kidnapped from Nova festival found dead in Gaza

Three hostages snatched from the Supernova music festival during the Hamas rampage into Israel on October 7 have been found dead in Gaza.

Shani Louk, Amit Buskila and Itzhak Gelerenter were killed by the Palestinian group at the desert rave before their bodies were taken over the border.

Their fate has remained uncertain for more than seven months until their bodies were identified, the IDF’s chief military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said today.

Roughly 1,200 people were massacred and 200 hostages were taken when Hamas and other Palestinian militants flooded into Israel on trucks, motorbikes and handgliders on October 7.

One of the first targets was the Supernova music festival, near Kibbutz Re’im, in the Negev desert where up to 4,000 people, mostly under 30, had gathered for a ‘journey of unity and love’.

Hamas fighters hunted unarmed youths through the surrounding fields, riddling cars with bullets as they attempted to flee or hide.

Footage showed militants waving guns parading the half-naked body of one attendee – 22-year-old Shani Louk – through the streets on the back of a truck.

Shani’s mutilated body was motionless.

It wasn’t clear at the time whether she was alive, and her family held out hope that she could be rescued alive after hearing she was in a hospital in Gaza.

But the German citizen’s mother Ricarda confirmed Shani was ‘no longer alive’ later that month.

An Associated Press photographer, Ali Mahmud, won a photojournalism award for his picture of Shani’s captured body, surrounded by five Hamas fighters on the truck.

It sparked outrage over perceived insensitivity, but Shani’s father Nissim said: ‘It’s good that the photo won the prize.

‘This is one of the most important photos in the last 50 years.’

Two other people taken by Hamas that day have also been recovered by the IDF in Gaza.

Both Amit Buskila and Itzhak Gelerenter were also found dead.

At least 26 other hostages – or people killed on October 7 before their bodies were stolen – have been confirmed dead.

Three of those were shot dead by Israel forces after escaping from their captors.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the ‘heartbreaking’ news of the three latest deaths by promising to ‘return all of our hostages, both the living and the dead’.

More than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched a military operation there in response to the October 7 massacre.

The IDF has destroyed homes, schools, hospitals, universities, agricultural land and energy infrastructure as it forces refugees from ‘safe zone’ to ‘safe zone’ before bombing those too.

So far it has failed to achieve either of its stated aims – the return of the hostages, and the destruction of Hamas, the militant group ruling Gaza.

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