Shani Louk, a German-Israeli national, was among festivalgoers who had gathered in farmland near the Gaza-Israel border for what was supposed to be an all-night dance party celebrating the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.
Instead, in the early hours of Saturday morning, it was swarmed by Hamas fighters who gunned down revelers and took others hostage, as they launched an unprecedented assault on Israel.
Louk was later pictured in a video, identified by her dreadlocks and tattoos, being paraded through Gaza as onlookers shouted “Allahu Akbar.”
She is among a large number of Israeli nationals who have been taken hostage by Hamas militants and are now being held in locations across Gaza, complicating Israel’s response to the deadly attack.
Israel is taking pains to establish the exact number of hostages that have been taken into Gaza, an isolated coastal enclave of almost 2 million people crammed into 140 square miles, one of the most densely populated places in the world.
Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, the military’s international spokesperson, told CNN on Sunday that “dozens” had been captured and emphasized just how complex the situation was as the army launched air strikes on Gaza in retaliation. In an earlier briefing he had said “civilians, children and grandmothers” were among those being held captive.
Hamas claims it has captured dozens of Israelis, including soldiers, and videos authenticated by CNN show some of the dramatic seizures.
Al Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, has warned attacks in the area could impact hostages, with its spokesman, Abu Obaida, saying in a recorded audio message Saturday that they were “present in all axes in the Gaza Strip.”
Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson, told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that “it is unprecedented in our history that we have so many Israeli nationals in the hands of a terrorist organization.”
It has been more than 17 years since an Israeli soldier was taken as a prisoner of war in an assault on Israeli territory. And Israel has not seen this kind of infiltration of military bases, towns and kibbutzim since town-by-town fighting in the 1948 war of independence.
Hamas has been tolerated by the global community for so long that they got cocky. They’ve gone full ISIS, and I hope this is the end of all global support for these murderous clowns. Hamas needs to die.
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I’ve been thinking a lot about this, the fact that Israel’s been mistreating Palestine for decades, and… it excuses nothing. Hamas is a murderous terrorist organization that has specifically targeted civilians, and should be utterly destroyed. Palestinians shouldn’t be represented by monsters willing to do what they’ve done.
Does hamas have any credibility to lose begin with. I lost any trust I had in them when I discovered they use children as suicide bombers and shields. These were never anything more than terrorists masquerading as the persecuted. Israels not much batter, their one step away from fascists. But no one in any position to do anything is ever objective about these two. The media that’s pro Palestine very clearly understated their actions and blames them as reactions for Israels persecution of them. The pro Israeli media just recounts hamas’s horror and claims retaliation is the only deterrent to more aggression. In the background more people die. I’m so tired of this messy status quo that has been ongoing since before I was even born. F*ck this whole situation.
It’s shit because I stand with Palestine against Jewish aggression and I see this as a result of Israel’s disgusting apartheid state policies over the last however many decades but I also can’t stand with them on this.
I am staunch in my position against Israel and the people who support Israel because of the harm they do so I can’t then defend this atrocity.
You know after WW2 in like 1947 (or 48?), prior to to the birth of Israel, the UN drafted a plan to divide what is now modern day Israel into two states; one for the Jewish inhabitants and one for the Palestinians, PLUS Jerusalem was to be a UN controlled international city. The Jewish community accepted the offer, the Palestinians turned it down because they wanted Jerusalem all to themselves as well as wanting all the Jews dead (them and the rest of the Arab world).
So yeah, the Palestinians could have been celebrating like the 75th anniversary of their own state by now had they not been so full of hate.
That of course is no excuse for Israeli apartheid. Both sides are assholes.
I’m sure you’d be cool with another country just giving another country half of yours.
There was no Palestinian country, and they where offered the vast majority of the israeli lands. As in the jewish would get lands that are smaller than the west bank is today.
You obviously don’t know what you are talking about.
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Yeah, decades of fucked up politics led to this point unfortunately.
All those conflicts and shit in the world, and climate change will just worsen it all, globally. Part of me is at a point where I just want the whole world burn, just to give another species a chance. Because it seems we just don’t want to be good to one another.
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Millennia. I think the original problem started with the Babylonian exile. The only continuous period of absolute peace was when the romans burned down the temple and salted the earth in Jerusalem.
I’m not advocating for any of this, but the problems are rooted deeper than 1947.
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Well, yes, but I meant specifically in the context of the Israeli state and its treatment of Palestinian people.
Yep, villains fighting villains.
But both sides killing mostly civilians.
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The tolerable position is to try hard not to kill non-combatants, but there is an uncomfortable but important distinction between a military force seeking out to kill non-combatants, and a military force trying to kill combatants but not giving a shit what else they hit.
This is a war fuelled by hate. They’re targeting civilians.
Hamas needs no further elaboration in that regard - you don’t mistake a rave for a military base. On the israeli side, whoever believes 500 targets bombed in Gaza over night equals 500 carefully selected military targets is more optimistic than I am.
The Israeli army shot and killed a journalist doing her job last year. It’s hard to claim she was easily confused for a legitimate military target, even for the most terrified racist in the Israeli military.
The new israeli government includes a far-right party (Otzma Yehudit) which spun out of a party that was outlawed decades ago (Kach). They are extremists, and they have been seeking to provoke something since they got in power. What they wanted was an excuse for genocide, and they are too goddamn stupid to understand that it might backfire.
Again, we all know the actions of Hamas are completely deplorable. The Israeli government being pretty damn close to a terror state doesn’t justify the killing of civilians - if it did, neither side would really be in a position to complain. Hamas also has the blood of the dead children in the Gaza Strip on their hands.
Hamas started out full ISIS. Then they built schools and roads in Gaza and got democratically elected to lead the Palestinians. Now they are a state in all but name waging war on a neighbor (who, let’s face it, has inflicted some grievances on them).
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You realize they’re only taking hostages because Israel only hesitates to blow them up if you MIGHT have one of their people nearby, right? They also do trades to get each of their own people back. So if you want your brother out of prison for fighting being annexed you need leverage.
Without any protection they would just get bombed into oblivion.
- Taking hostages for protection from running down and killing a bunch of civilians isn’t a defence. It’s literally what every bad person in any story does.
- If the intention is purely to use them for defence you don’t have to treat them like garbage and shame them publicly.
They did this to continue the horror of what they already did, it was a power play not a smart play.
I’m not disagreeing but this “that’s what bad people in stories do” line of prosecution should be thrown out of court.
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Yes, bombing 2.1 million innocent civilians into the ground just makes perfect sense to everyone. /s
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Louk was later pictured in a video, identified by her dreadlocks and tattoos, being paraded through Gaza as onlookers shouted “Allahu Akbar.”
She is among a large number of Israeli nationals who have been taken hostage by Hamas militants and are now being held in locations across Gaza, complicating Israel’s response to the deadly attack.
*Half naked, with her limbs broken and a bloody wound to her head, very likely dead & spat on.
How appropriate that they chanted Allahu Akbar.
https://twitter.com/OCanonist/status/1711038302646940081
Let’s not pretend the Palestinians are uniquely cruel. What goes around comes around
What does your whataboutism have to do with the fact that Hamas literally murdered, tortured & raped hundreds of innocent civilians, many of them being foreigners even?
Oh so you didn’t even look at the links.
The second link I sent shows the IDF attacking the funeral of an American citizen after they murdered her.
Israel also murders civilians. Israel also murders foreigners. Israel is an apartheid colonist state.
Palestine is fighting for statehood.
The differences are obvious to anyone with a brain. How you can hold Palestine to a higher standard than Israel is beyond me.
You still did not explain what your whataboutism has to do with Hamas brutally murdering, torturing & raping hundreds of innocent civilians. And please just stop the tankie rhetoric.
I just wonder who was thinking of organising a mass event so close to the Gaza strip, which hasn’t had a pristine track record, is a good idea. And who from the Israel side gave them the green light.
Seriously, this should have not happened in the first place. And perhaps this tragedy could have been avoided.
Don’t blame the victims for being at a party. Blame the gunmen who killed 260 of them in minutes.
But look at the way they dressed, they were basically asking for it! /s
Not a bulletproof vest in sight.
I just wonder who was thinking of organising a mass event so close to the Gaza strip, which hasn’t had a pristine track record, is a good idea. And who from the Israel side gave them the green light.
On the anniversary of the Yom Kippur War. With an enemy that plans attacks corresponding with anniversaries.
Victim blaming is SO in nowadays!
Who is blaming the victims? I am just saying that organising a concert so close to disputed territory was a stupid idea, which put a lot of innocents at an extra risk.
In an ideal world this would not have happened and Palestine wouldn’t have been held hostage and we would have all lived in peace but unfortunately we don’t live in such utopia.
In an ideal world people wouldn’t have their houses robbed either, I’ll assume you fault the people that don’t lock their doors?
In an ideal world Palestine wouldn’t be a subject to such an inhumane treatment as well. In an ideal world kids should not die out of hunger, or people have their homes destroyed. In an ideal world such an oppressed nation like Israel wouldn’t turn into a modern day oppressor.
In an ideal world slavery or racial crimes would not exist. In an ideal world people would not kill each other out of hatred, and don’t tell me that the fault lies only with one of the sides, because that’s a very shortsighted way of thinking.
But we don’t live in such utopia, are we? We live in a world where people generalise other people, where innocents are suffering every day, where justice is served by the victors.
According to your logic everyone who is locking their front door or installing an alarm system is a fool with a victim mentality.
Who is blaming the victims? I am just saying that organising a concert so close to disputed territory was a stupid idea, which put a lot of innocents at an extra risk.
That’s victim blaming.
It’s like saying victims of rape should dress more modestly or avoid sketchy neighborhoods, otherwise they’re “asking for it”.
Can people use more precautions? Sure. But it’s never okay to dismiss atrocities done to a person by someone else because they weren’t careful enough.
Ugh, your logic is skewed, this is called basic precaution. You as a parent would you allow your kid to go there? I know I wouldn’t! Same reason that I would avoid some sketchy places at night. Because I don’t want to put myself and my child at an extra risk.
Would you go camping in Afghanistan for example? Of course you can, but is it wise? Probably not very much.
This festival was 6km away from the Gaza strip! In a remote desert place! They should have applied for permission from the local authorities. And someone there has signed this permission, knowing perfectly well that this would expose the festival goers to an extra risk. That’s unacceptable!
But it is not the victim’s fault that these occur. Nothing else matters when assigning blame. You can take actions to minimize risk, but that does not excuse the actions of people who choose to commit acts of violence.
Placing the burden of preventing this situation on the victim as you are is the very essence of victim blaming.
And my only point is that the local authorities could have taken preventive measures to minimize the risk which they did not!
No, it isn’t. Victim blaming is a thing, but there needs to be some limits or the concept loses any significance.
“Dress modestly when you go out else you get raped” is victim blaming.
“Don’t organise an international event in one the world’s most dangerous and war-ridden regions of the globe, literally a handful of Kms from a fence, armed checkpoints, and automated machine gun turrets” is reasonable common sense.
So what were you wearing?
Yes Israel is a bizarre place, where warfare and terror is always a breath away, yet people are having music festivals and bootstrapping tech startups all the while.
Are they still hostages if they are murdered?
If you have religious ideas about what’s supposed to happen to our mortal remains, then maybe in a limited sense.
Ah i forgot about that, I’m a simple person. Thanks
So Israel hasn’t even figured out exactly how many hostages were taken back to Gaza before they started blowing it up. Makes sense.
