Shani Louk, kidnapped by Hamas, was beheaded: Israeli leader

Israeli President Isaac Herzog has confirmed that 22-year-old German Shani Louk, who was kidnapped by militants of the Palestinian Hamas movement, is dead. He told German television channel Welt that the girl had been decapitated.

"Her skull has been found. This means that these barbaric, sadistic animals simply chopped off her head as they attacked, tortured and killed Israelis," the Israeli president said.

He called what happened a greater tragedy, and expressed deep condolences to her family. About 40 bodies have not yet been identified, Herzog noted.

He said what they saw on the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel "went far beyond a pogrom, we saw a massacre."

On October 30, the death of Shani Louk, who holds German and Israeli citizenship, was announced by her mother. Before that, Ricarda Louk had recognised her 22-year-old daughter in a video of her lying face down in a pick-up truck in a semi-nude state between several Hamas militants. The militants broke her legs and placed her on her stomach in the pick-up truck. One of the terrorists put his leg around the girl's waist, while another held her by the hair. She was then taken away to an unknown destination.