Festival-goer Shani Louk is alive, according to her mother

A young tattoo artist thought to have been murdered after she was paraded through the streets by Hamas militants is still alive, according to her mother. Warning: Graphic

A young woman whose battered body was paraded through the streets by Hamas militants in a horrific viral clip is still alive, according to her family.

Shani Louk, a German national, was feared dead after the militants put her near naked body on display on the back of a truck while yelling “Allahu Akbar”.

Distressing video showed the militants, which accused Ms Louk of being an Israeli soldier, spitting on her bloodied body.

The 22-year-old had been attending the Supernova Festival near Kibbutz Re’im in southern Israel when Hamas launched a campaign of terror into Israel.

However, her mother Ricarda Louk on Wednesday said she has been tipped off by an unidentified Palestinian source that her daughter was actually in a hospital.

She told German news outlet Bild that she believed her daughter was in a Gaza hospital with serious head injuries.

“We now have evidence that Shani is alive but has a serious head injury and is in critical condition. Every minute is critical,” she told Bild.

“We are not getting any information from the authorities here. Peace activists have told us that Shani will now only get help if the German authorities officially intervene.”

Shani Louk, a German national, may still be alive. Picture: Instagram

The 22-year-old has not been accounted for since the horrifying footage of her body being spat on by militants sparked outrage around the globe.

Ms Louk, a graphic designer and tattoo artist, was immediately identified by family members in the brutal video because of her distinctive tattoos.

A family friend in the Gaza Strip thinks the young woman is now in the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahia, but has not been able to visit, another family acquaintance told German news outlet Spiegel.

Her family — including her mother, who converted to Judaism from Catholicism, and her father, who is Israeli — live about 80km from the Gaza Strip, the outlet said.

Her aunty Orly Louk revealed her niece was a staunch advocate for peace and objected to military service in Israel.

National military service is mandatory for all Israeli citizens over the age of 18, for a minimum of 32 months for men and 24 months for women.

However, Ms Louk had refused to partake in the mandatory service and reportedly held firmly anti-war stances.

The latest development comes after heartbreaking footage captured the young woman smiling and beaming to the camera as she danced enthusiastically with friends.

Shani Louk dancing and enjoying the festival.

260 BODIES RECOVERED

It comes after 260 bodies were recovered from the site of the music festival.

Emergency workers describing the gruesome scene as a “massacre”.

Yaniv, a rescue worker told public broadcaster Kan News: “I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. It was a planned ambush. As people came out of the emergency exits, squads of terrorists were waiting for them there and just started picking them off.”

At least 260 bodies have been found at the site of a music festival near the Gaza Strip that was the target of Hamas.

Harrowing footage shows terrified festival-goers, mostly aged in their 20s and 30s, fleeing on foot over the sand to their cars, screaming as shots are fired. Some are seen holding hands as they run away while others shout “go, go, go”.

One partygoer named Ortel said the rockets fired were quickly followed by gunshots being fired from jeeps full of gunmen.

“They turned off the electricity and suddenly out of nowhere they [militants] come inside with gunfire, opening fire in every direction,” she told the BBC.

“Fifty terrorists arrived in vans, dressed in military uniforms. They fired bursts, and we reached a point where everyone stopped their vehicles and started running.”

More shots were fired as people tried to run through the sand or drive off in their cars, in what was meant to be a night celebrating the end of the Sukkot religious holiday had turned to terror.

The militants opened fire on partygoers attending the outdoor Supernova Festival.

Ortel said she hid in a bush where she watched “masses of wounded people thrown around”.

Among those hiding was Gili Yoskovich, who was forced to shelter beneath a fruit tree in the middle of a field shaking for three hours as bullets flew past her. She hid until she heard people speaking Hebrew and was rescued by Israeli soldiers.

In a still taken from video, a woman that has been identified on social media as Noa Argamani, is pictured being abducted my Palestinian militants in Southern Israel.

The mother described how young people were dying all around her and on the road as Hamas militants went ‘tree to tree’ on a killing spree.

“I saw people were dying all around. I was very quiet. I didn’t cry, I didn’t do anything,” she told the BBC.

“I was … breathing, saying: ‘OK, I’m going to die. It’s OK, just breathe, just close your eyes’.”

A number of people who attended the peaceful festival in the desert, that coincided with the Jewish festival of Sukkot, are missing including Noa Argamani and her boyfriend Avi Nathan.

Originally published as Festival-goer Shani Louk is alive, according to her mother