“Mom, I don’t know where to hide, I’m looking for shelter…” These were perhaps the last words of Shani Luke, the German-Israeli girl who became a symbol of the delirious massacre carried out by Hamas on October 7. Desperate words, directed at the mother from her smartphone as she ran in panic for cover. But everywhere, just the expanse of sand and rocks in the Negev desert, were the screams and gunfire of his executioners. On the ground there was a trace of the blood of many of their peers who had already been injured or killed by bullets. It was believed that Shani may be seriously injured but still alive, among the hostages taken by the jihadists that day. But even the last flame of hope has now been extinguished: the 22-year-old is dead, and most likely has already died in what will go down in history as Israel’s “Black Saturday.”
Members of the little girl’s family, her mother Ricarda on television and her sister Adi on Instagram, announced the tragic conclusion: Shani’s body has not yet been found, but the Israeli army found a bone from the skull at the site of the massacre. With DNA testing that leaves no room for doubt. Israeli President Isaac Herzog commented in an interview with Bild newspaper, saying: “This means that these barbaric and sadistic animals simply cut off their heads while attacking, torturing and killing them.”
Thus, it is a terrible ending, even if the dynamics and details of what actually happened are not investigated. The apparently inanimate body of Shani, identified by her mother because of her tattoos, appeared in a video released by Hamas immediately after the massacre at Kibbutz Ra’im, thrown onto the back of a pickup truck driving through the streets of Gaza: he was lying half-naked, face down. While a number of men trampled on him. One of them pulled her hair, and another spat on her bleeding head. Everyone around them was shouting, “God is great,” “God is great.” Then the jeep sped off.
The images are frightening and cruel, but they have fueled hope that the girl may be seriously injured but still alive. Also because on October 10, a Palestinian friend of Shani’s family assumed the young woman was in a Gaza hospital. Then his credit card used in that particular area. Hence the family’s repeated calls to the Israeli and German authorities, including Chancellor Olaf Schulz, to do everything in their power to put an end to the nightmare.
Now all that remains is the enormous pain of the girl who loved traveling the world and music, and who returned to Israel just hours ago. She was a tattoo artist by profession, but she was also a very influential influencer on Instagram, where, smiling and with her long dreadlocks, she shared her love and emotions with hundreds of followers. He lived in Tel Aviv, after completing his studies in Portland, Oregon. His mother, Rebecca, a German of Catholic origins, traveled to Israel from Regensburg in the 1990s, married, and converted.
Shani’s friend, a Mexican boy who was with her in the courtyard of Kibbutz Ra’im to watch the Supernova festival, has not been heard from since that day. The two young men were running desperately to reach their car, which was now surrounded by militia men. An inevitable race.
German Chancellor Olaf Schulz commented that Shani’s killing “shows all the brutality behind the Hamas attack,” stressing that Israel has every right to defend itself.
Reproduction © Copyright ANSA
“Freelance social media evangelist. Organizer. Certified student. Music maven.”
