The Israeli military claims to have recovered the bodies of three Israeli hostages from Gaza, including Shani Louk, the 23-year-old German Israeli who was declared dead last year.
In a joint operation between the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Shin Bet security agency, the bodies were recovered from an undisclosed location in Gaza on Friday, said Daniel Hagari, an IDF spokesman.
Shani Louk, Amit Buskila, 28, and Itzak Gelerenter, 57, were kidnapped along with 200 others by Hamas at a music festival in the Negev desert on October 7.
The military believes that the three fled together from the party location to a nearby junction, where they were killed by Hamas gunmen and their bodies taken to Gaza.
Until Friday’s announcement, Buskila and Gelerenter’s relatives believed their loved ones were still alive as they had not received any updates from the IDF suggesting otherwise.
Louk’s family was informed in late October that she had died following an accident skull base bone was recovered and identified. The family was told that the injury she suffered was too severe to survive.
The German-Israeli tattoo artist became one of the Most famous faces of the October 7th massacre when images circulated online showing the young woman lying unconscious and half-naked in the back of a pickup truck in Gaza, surrounded by jeering assailants.
Louk was identified in the video by her tattoos and dreadlock hairstyle.
His father said Friday that the news that his body had been recovered and returned to Israel gave him closure.
“We are devastated and in mourning, but there is relief,” Nissim told the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.
“She brings light to us, both in her life and in her death.”
‘We will return all our hostages’
The IDF broke the news to the family on Friday, he told local TV: “I asked to see photos and I saw a photo of her – she looks perfect as if she were alive.”
The IDF has not said where the bodies were found, but Israeli troops were operating this morning in Rafah in the south and in Jabaliya in northern Gaza.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said in a statement on Friday that he was “heartbroken” by the news.
“I congratulate our courageous forces who, with determined action, returned our sons and daughters home,” he said.
“We will return all our hostages – living and deceased.”
The bodies were recovered two weeks after hostage negotiations between Israel and Hamas failed.
A group representing many families of the hostages on Friday urged the government to take steps to resume negotiations: “The return of the bodies is a painful and stark reminder that we must quickly bring back all our brothers and sisters from their cruel captivity – the living. to rehabilitation, and those murdered to a proper burial.”
So far, families have received proof of life for only a handful of hostages in Gaza, and it is feared that many of those abducted in Gaza are dead. Hamas admitted that some of the Israelis were captured by rival militias or by civilians who invaded southern Israel and said it did not know the whereabouts of many of them.
During the last round of hostage talks with Israel, Hamas declined a suggestion to release 40 women, minors or injured hostages, saying it did not have that many hostages in that category.
Hamas killed 1,200 people in its surprise attack on bases and communities in southern Israel on October 7 and took around 250 hostages, according to Israeli data. Around 129 hostages remain captive in Gaza.
