Witness of Shani Louk's death recounts her 'final moments in this world'

A woman who witnessed the murder of a young German woman at Israel’s Supernova festival has opened up about her final moments.

Shani Louk, 23, became a symbol of the horrors of Hamas’s 7 October attacks when her limp and semi-naked body was paraded through the streets of Gaza following the bloody ambush.

Following desperate, public appeals for information, Shani’s family was told that she was alive but in a critical condition.

However, on Monday, it emerged that these were simply false rumours when members of the Israeli army knocked on the door of Shani’s mother Ricarda Louk.

They told her that they had discovered a fragment from the base of her skull close to the festival site.

“A human being cannot live without this piece they found,” Ricarda, 53, told The Times.

“They found it on the Israeli side, so it means it’s from the first day — because on that first day, after a few hours, we had already seen a video of her body in the Gaza Strip.”

Now, another woman, named Roni Roman who was at the festival believes she saw Shani’s death with her own eyes.

Speaking to German news programme ‘Hard But Fair’, Roni recalled: “We saw her bleeding, we saw that she had a head injury. We saw these people around her being happy and cheering and singing that she was hurting.”

Roni, whose own sister Yarden is believed to be among the hostages being held by Hamas, added: “It’s just unbelievable to realize that this was [Shani’s] last moment in this world.”

Roni Roman (left) said she "couldn't imagine how Shani's mother must be feeling"('Hard But Fair'/Focus Online/shanukkk/Instagram)

The 23-year-old was last seen in the back of a pick-up truck in Gaza, surrounded by jubilant members of the Islamist group.

Footage of the deeply disturbing scene spread across social media, and prompted appeals for help from Shani’s heartbroken mum.

“If you saw the video, you can imagine how I felt,” Ricarda said.

“You feel like you’re in a horror movie, when you see your own daughter being transported like this by those barbarian people and everybody celebrating and spitting on her. It’s like you’re in a bad movie and you want to wake up. A bad dream. It’s devastating.”

And yet, she was offered a shred of hope after a source within Gaza told her Shani was seriously injured but being treated in a hospital on the Strip

“This actually gave us the most hope that she’s alive and that she’s there,” Ricarda said, explaining that this prompted her to call on the German government and beg them to intervene.

That was “until we got the news that she died”, she added.

Ricarda Louk (right) shared desperate appeals for information regarding her daughter's whereabouts(@shanukkk/Instagram/Bild)

Still, even the confirmation of her death was shrouded in hearsay.

Israeli president Yitzchak Herzog apparently exaggerated the details, telling German newspaper Bild that Shani had been beheaded.

“Her skull has been found. This means that these barbaric, sadistic animals simply chopped off her head as they attacked, tortured and killed Israelis,” he told the paper.

Although consumed with grief, Ricarda said she found some solace in knowing that Shani hadn’t suffered weeks of torture.

“Those three weeks without knowing anything and what’s going on and where she is, what they are doing to her, was horrible — that was even worse,” she confided.

“But worst of all would be that all the hostages come back and she wouldn’t be one of them, and we would wonder all our lives where she is and what happened to her without knowing, maybe ever. That would be our worst nightmare we can think of.”

And whilst Shani’s family have had some closure in learning of her fate, they can’t yet hold a funeral for their beloved sister, cousin and daughter.

Not while her body remains, surrounded by death and destruction, in the Gaza Strip.

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