Mom pleads for help to find missing daughter after seeing her in kidnapping video
Topics: News, World News, Israel
Kit Roberts
Featured Image Credit: FAMILY OF SHANI LOUK/ Instagram/ shanukkk
Topics: News, World News, Israel
The mother of a woman who is missing following an attack on Israel by Palestinian militant group Hamas has pleaded for help to find her.
Shani Louk, a German tourist in Israel, had been attending a music festival in the country's south when Hamas launched their assault.
Her mother, Ricarda, has now issued a desperate plea for help after a video emerged online of Hamas terrorists with a young woman.
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To her horror, Ricarda recognised the video as being of her daughter.
Holding up a picture of her daughter on social media, Ricarda said: "We were sent a video in which I could clearly see our daughter unconscious in the car with the Palestinians and them driving around the Gaza Strip.
"I ask you to send us any help or news. Thank you very much."
The video shows the motionless body of a young woman being paraded through the streets in the back of a pickup truck, surrounded by militants.
While the woman is lying face down, Ricarda said they were able to identify her from her distinctive tattoos and dreadlocks.
Her cousin, Tom Weintraub Louk, also told the Washington Post: "We have some kind of hope. Hamas is responsible for her and the others."
At least 260 people have been confirmed to have been killed at the Supernova music festival being held in southern Israel.
Attendees were forced to flee for their lives after Hamas militants began killing Israeli civilians indiscriminately, taking others back to Gaza as hostages.
Witnesses at the festival described it as a 'massacre', with gunman lying in wait and 'picking off' civilians as they attempted to flee.
At least 700 people have been confirmed to have been killed in Israel since the attacks started.
The attack is the deadliest assault on Israel in decades, with fighting ongoing between Hamas militants and Israeli forces within the country.
Israel has launched retaliatory airstrikes on Gaza, levelling whole streets and killing at least 419 people according to the Palestinian Authority.
Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has declared war on Hamas following the attacks and raised the notion of a ground assault into Gaza.
In the past, this has brought intensified casualties, and would also be further complicated by the hostages taken into Gaza by Hamas.
The US has condemned Hamas following the assault.
In a statement released at the start of the attack, President Joe Biden said: "The United States unequivocally condemns this appalling assault against Israel by Hamas terrorists from Gaza, and I made clear to Prime Minister Netanyahu that we stand ready to offer all appropriate means of support to the Government and people of Israel."