THE mother of Hamas victim Shani Louk has spoken of the difficulties she faces ahead of her first Christmas without her beloved daughter.
December 25 will no longer be the same for Ricarda Louk following the heartbreaking death of the 23-year-old.
ReutersShani’s parents, Ricarda and Nissim Louk, are preparing for their first Christmas without their daughter[/caption]
shanukkk/InstagramShani was murdered by Hamas terrorists when they stormed the Supernova music festival during the October 7 attacks[/caption]
Instagram/shanukkkShani’s boyfriend, Orion Hernandez Radoux, is among the hostages still being held by Hamas[/caption]
Shani was just one of 364 fatalities at the Supernova Sukkot Gathering on October 7 as Hamas sprung a surprise invasion on the Israel border and slaughtered innocent civilians.
The tattoo artist briefly spoke with her mother after alerts for rockets went off in the south of Israel – the last contact they’d ever have.
Ricarda is now preparing for a first Christmas without her daughter, a time when they would would visit Ravensburg in southern Germany to spend time with Shani’s grandparents.
A visit to the a picturesque city was a way of staying in touch with their German heritage.
Now, there will be an empty seat around the dinner table.
“It’s strange… everything is difficult without her,” Mrs Louk told The Telegraph.
She described how she had missed an opportunity to see Shani and meet her boyfriend, Orion Hernandez Radoux, for the first time on the eve of the October 7 attacks.
“They were always abroad and travelling, they reconnected all the time,” she recalled. “She travelled with him in Mexico and in Europe all summer.”
Ricarda met her own husband, Shani’s father, while travelling in Thailand 30 years ago before converting to Judaism and moving to Israel.
The couple had declined Mrs Louk’s invitation to dinner on October 6 in order to attend the Supernova music festival in the desert at Re-im the next day.
But to make amends, they promised to visit the family home the following week.
Shani is now dead, while her boyfriend, Orion, is among the Israeli hostages still being held by Hamas. Life will never be the same.
As gunshots rang out around the festival, Shani, Orion and a friend tried to flee in a car, calling fellow partygoers to alert them to the danger.
“They were warning them – they said, don’t come here, they’re shooting,” said Mrs Louk.
The trio couldn’t escape and soon photos spread of Shani’s partially-clothed body, with her long dreadlocks and distinctive tattoos, being carried into Gaza on a truck.
There was initial hope that she was still alive following rumours that she was being held in a hospital inside the Strip.
“It gave us hope at the time,” Mrs Louk said.
But inaccurate reports in a German newspaper that said Shani had been beheaded soon followed.
Mrs Louk called Isaac Herzog, Israel’s president, personally to demand an explanation, who claimed he had misunderstood official reports.
“He apologised 10 times… I think it was really by mistake,” she adds.
Then came the night when Israeli officers turned up at the door.
“They knocked on the door at midnight. We opened the door, and you know immediately what’s happened.
“That’s the only reason they come,” Mrs Louk said, fighting back tears.
But despite the hell, torment and devastation she’s experienced, Shani’s mother is determined to hold onto the fondest memories of her daughter.
“She was a very independent woman, very peace-loving, a free spirit … When she was a teenager, she didn’t go the conventional way,” she said.
Shani refused to do Israel’s compulsory military service by moving to Tel Aviv when she was just 18.
She had to work in all kinds of jobs just to get by, but her mother sees it as Shani’s way of living out life in the limited time she had.
“Retrospectively, we think maybe that’s the plan of life that she had – she experienced a lot of things earlier than others, because she didn’t have much time,” Mrs Louk said.
It was only recently that Shani had found her passion as a tattoo artist, where her art and adventures around the world brought joy to her family.
With her youthful spirit and hippy style, Shani became a global symbol of the innocent victims of Hamas’s massacre at the Supernova rave.
Sympathy for Mrs Louk and her family has come from all corners of the world, of which she says she is eternally grateful.
The family’s neighbours even cooked for them every single day for a month, while locals in Ravensburg marched for the release of the hostages.
Israel today raided and blitzed the house of Hamas’s most wanted one-eyed military chief dubbed “The Guest” who has evaded assassination for decades.
Inside the terror lair, the IDF found Mohammed Deif’s ID card – bringing them one step closer in their hunt for the elusive architect behind the October 7 attacks.
Dramatic footage captured onboard an Israeli war dog has also shown the canine hunting down Hamas terrorists in their underground metropolis.
The raider hound moves quickly as it scans a newly-uncovered “terrorist city” that served as a Hamas headquarters underneath bomb-blitzed Gaza City.
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