Mother pleads for help as daughter goes missing at festival

By Rachel RussellBBC News

A German mother is pleading for information about her daughter, who she believes was kidnapped by Palestinian militants at a music festival in Israel and paraded through the streets in the back of a pick-up truck.

Shani Louk, who is also a German citizen, had been attending the festival near the Gaza border when Hamas militants stormed the area, opening fire and sending terrified partygoers fleeing through the desert.

Her mother, Ricarda, said she had seen a video of Shani "unconscious in a car" after being taken.

Holding up a picture of the twenty-something on her mobile phone, she said in a social media appeal that her daughter had been "kidnapped with a group of tourists in southern Israel by Palestinian Hamas".

"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," she said. "I ask you to send us any help or news. Thank you very much."

As news of Hamas's multi-pronged assault into Israeli territory broke early on Saturday, Ms Louk's family began desperately trying to contact her.

To their horror, they then recognised her in a video being widely shared on social media, showing the body of a young woman being paraded through the streets in the back of a flatbed truck, surrounded by armed fighters and others yelling "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest).

The woman is lying face down but her family say they identified Ms Louk from her dreadlocks and distinctive tattoos.

"We have some kind of hope," her cousin Tom Weintraub Louk told the Washington Post. "Hamas is responsible for her and the others."

At least 100 Israeli soldiers and civilians were kidnapped in the Hamas assault, the Israeli government says.

More on Israel-Gaza attacks

Other people are reported to be missing from the festival, including British citizen Jake Marlowe, although the Israeli embassy in the UK told the BBC it did not know if he had been taken hostage.

His mother told news site Jewish News that he was working as security staff at the festival in Kibbutz Re'im, a community in the city of Ofakim, not far from Gaza.

Videos posted on social media appeared to show an Israeli woman, identified as Noa Argamani, who also attended the event, being kidnapped and held on a motorcycle by two men.

Gili Yoskovich, who also attended, told the BBC that she hid under a tree in a field while gunmen went around shooting anyone they could find.

Fighting is ongoing after Israel was hit with a surprise attack by Hamas this weekend.

The Palestinian militants launched a wave of rocket attacks and fighters stormed into Israel on Saturday morning, which have left hundreds dead and thousands more wounded.

Hundreds have also been killed on the other side following Israeli air strikes according to the health ministry in Gaza, which is run by Hamas.

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