After meeting with Baerbock: Shani Louk’s family calls for more efforts from the federal government The great Hamas attack – a reconstruction

The mother of German Shani Louk, who was reportedly kidnapped by Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip, hopes the federal government will do more to help the hostages. “We hope that more will be done now,” said Ricarda Louk after the meeting with Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) in Israel. “It was very good that she was here in our country,” Louk told dpa. Baerbock met with the hostages’ families on Friday. “She listened to the stories and was very moved.”

It was important to make it clear to the families ‘that we don’t have time’. Kidnapping suspects included small children and old people in need of medicine. “My daughter has a head injury and time is of the essence,” said Louk.

Shani is said to be seriously injured, but is still alive

According to her family, 22-year-old Shani Louk was kidnapped in the terrorist attack on Israel last weekend. She was taken hostage by the Islamist Hamas at a music festival in Israel’s Negev Desert. Shani Louk’s family, some of whom live in Baden-Württemberg, believe the young woman is seriously injured but still alive and in the Gaza Strip.

The family received this information three days ago “from a known person in the Gaza Strip.” She couldn’t say more about her source. “Everyone is in danger there,” Louk said. However, no one has yet been able to confirm 100% that the information about their daughter is correct.

“We are completely in the dark and that is the hardest part.”

Her family shares all information with the German and Israeli authorities, but receives nothing in return, says Ricarda Louk: “We are so completely in the dark and that is the hardest part.”

Her family has now joined forces with other affected people. “It’s not just about Shani, many more families have been affected and a terrible fate is happening,” says Louk. “The minister also sees that it is real. These are not stories, these are real fates and people, children and grandmothers who have been kidnapped.” (…) “It is unimaginable and the whole world needs to know.”

Shani’s uncle calls it a ‘political show’

The federal government has assured the family support, said Wilfried Gehr, the partner of Shani’s aunt Orly Louk. Both are currently located in Sulz am Neckar in Baden-Württemberg. However, no concrete results emerged from the meeting. Gehr criticized the conversation as a “political show”: the families were merely used as “extras” but did not do enough to free the prisoners, he said.

After crisis talks in Egypt, Foreign Minister Baerbock urgently appealed to Hamas to release all hostages kidnapped from Israel. The federal government is aware of eight cases of German citizens among those abducted, most of them with dual nationality, the Green politician said after meeting her Egyptian counterpart Samih Schukri in the capital Cairo. All channels are being used “to obtain information about whose hands the hostages are and to do everything possible to ensure the release of these innocent people,” the federal foreign minister added.