What happened to Shani Louk at Supernova festival, is she alive

A young German-Israeli tattoo artist thought to have been murdered by Hamas militants is still alive, according to her mother.

Shani Louk, 22, was presumed dead after disturbing footage of her naked and limp body being driven by militants into Palestinian territory went viral.

She was abducted from the Supernova festival on Saturday, which was brutally attacked by Hamas militants, leaving at least 260 people dead.

The attackers paraded her body through the streets on a flatbed truck, screaming, “Allahu Akbar (God is great)”.

However, on Tuesday her mother, Ricarda, claimed to have been tipped off by an unidentified Palestinian source that her daughter was actually in a hospital.

Ricarda Louk 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.”

Her family identified Shani in a brutal video that circulated online in the early hours of the fighting between Israel and Hamas.

It showed Shani’s body – with her distinctive tattoos and dreadlocks – being paraded and spat on in the back of a Hamas pick-up truck.

The family was also alerted to Louk’s credit card allegedly being used in Gaza on Sunday, the Daily Beast added.

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 Spiegel.

Louk has never lived in Germany, but travelled there frequently to visit her maternal grandparents, Spiegel noted.

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

Louk’s aunt, Orly Louk, told German news outlet Der Spiegel that her niece had grown up in Israel, but was a globetrotting pacifist who refused to perform the military service that is mandatory for Israelis.

She said the last photo Louk posted on social media was a selfie before she headed to the festival near Kibbutz Re’im.

“She often posted selfies on Instagram,” Orly Louk told the outlet as she held out hope that her niece is still alive.

Louk was at a music festival close to the Gaza Strip on Saturday when Hamas attackers swarmed the event, killing at least 260 those in the crowd and taking many others hostage.

Shani’s mother earlier said her daughter was trying to leave the event when the terrorists launched their surprise attack in the Negev Desert.

“She was panicked a little bit, and she said she was going to take the car now and go to a safe location. And then we stopped talking and since then I didn’t hear anything from her anymore,” she said.

The development comes after a heartbreaking video published in the New York Post captured Louk joyfully dancing at the festival moments before the attack.

The video was posted when Shani was assumed to be among the murdered, with it being described as “probably the last moments of her before Hamas attacked music festival.”

About 3,500 young people attended the Supernova music festival, which was among the first targets of Hamas gunmen.

Video footage from the festival shared online showed the gunmen descending in paragliders on the gathering while others came by road.

Hamas fighters opened fire on the revellers who had reportedly come together to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Sukkot with an electronic music festival.

Israeli first responders posted videos to the social media site Telegram showing armed men plunging into the panicked crowd, mowing down fleeing revellers with bursts of automatic fire.

Many victims were shot in the back as they ran.