Father of murdered Israeli hostage Shani Louk 'relieved' as her body returns home

Sky News
Updated ·3-min read

As a little girl Shani Louk would walk into the pine forests on the hills behind her home and pick flowers and look for animals.

On Sunday, she will be buried among those trees, back home, close to her family, after seven-and-a-half months in Gaza.

Her parents, Nissim and Ricarda, knew she was dead a few weeks after a video of her body, slumped on the back of a Hamas truck, became one of the defining images of the 7 October massacre at the Nova music festival.

But to have her body back, and give her a proper burial, has brought the family huge relief.

"I'm relieved because now I have a place, you know, to come to, like a grave. Tomorrow she will be buried here in the nature you see around us," Mr Louk told us, on the small terrace overlooking the woods where she will be laid to rest.

"She came back home and it's my wife's birthday and I see she felt, you know, enough, I don't want to be in Gaza anymore. You know, the spirit. I don't want to be in Gaza anymore. I want to come back and stay and lie next to you, to my parents."

Ms Louk spent the night before her death, the way her family remember her: dancing.

"Shani loved peace, she was a friend with everyone, she never harmed anyone," Mr Louk remembers.

"She loved nature. She loved dancing. She loved the happiness. She had this free spirit and she was dancing all night with all her friends in that party all night. You know, the friends are hugging and kissing and they are dancing."

Ms Louk's body was found by Israeli special forces in Rafah on Thursday. She was discovered along with two others - Amit Buskila and Itzhak Gelerenter. Their identities were confirmed and the families notified. A fourth body, that of Ron Benjamin, was also recovered over the weekend.

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Ms Louk's family were shown a photo of her body, "an amazing thing" said her father.

"She's been there for the last 230 days nearly, and after 230 days, you don't know what you're going to get back. But no, her body is beautiful, is complete. You still see the hands and you still see everything and the tattoos that she had on her hands, which I think is amazing, because I didn't expect that."

On Saturday, in Tel Aviv, thousands took to the streets for the weekly protest against the Israeli government.

Negotiations for a new ceasefire and hostage release deal have broken down and many blame Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Mr Louk holds Hamas responsible for the lack of a deal: "We pray that everyone will come back and the families will meet together. Of course we want that all these people will come back and I hope they will come back.

"But at the moment, I don't see how it is possible because the other side is really cruel and they don't want to do it."

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