After the Islamist militant group Hamas stormed a music festival near the Gaza-Israel border, gunning down scores and taking hostages, video footage of what appeared to be the body of 22-year-old German woman Shani Louk began circulating online, leaving her family to fear the worst.
Shaky footage and photos posted on the X social media site and other platforms following the attack showed a young woman in the back of a truck, barely clothed, her body contorted unnaturally, while a man held a fistful of her dreadlocks. Although her face was obscured, her family recognized her tattoos, they said, and it didn’t take long for a narrative to emerge online that Louk had been murdered.
The image was deeply disturbing. But so too is the realization that the narrative attached to this footage appears to have been inaccurate. On Tuesday, Louk’s mother said Shani was actually still alive, and was being held in a hospital in Gaza, though additional details were unclear.