Shani Louk became the face of Hamas' brutal massacre. Her family says they'll remember her as a 'pacifist' with a pure soul.

• Shani Louk was a German-Israeli tattoo artist who was thought to have been kidnapped by Hamas.
• This week, she was confirmed dead by the Israeli military.

A video shows a group of girls dancing to trance music at the Nova music festival near the Gaza border earlier this month.

Shani Louk, dressed in an olive green two-piece, is one of them.

The beautiful tattoo artist, who was 22 at the time, appears happy and carefree. She gestures at the camera and twirls around her girlfriends underneath a colorful tent.

Just hours later, she would be running for her life amid a hail of bullets.

On October 7, Hamas militants launched a surprise terrorist attack on the festival, killing more than 260 people and taking others hostage.

Louk was among the many partygoers attempting to flee, according to her mother, who said that her daughter had called to tell her she was trying to get to her car.

Shortly after, Louk stopped responding to her calls.

It was Louk's distinctive dreadlocks and her tattoos that eventually helped her family identify her in a gruesome video posted on social media by Hamas in the hours after the attack.

But this time, Louk appeared to be in the back of a pickup truck driven by Hamas militants through Gaza. In the video, her body is face down and in her underwear.

One Hamas soldier appears to grab her hair while another spits on her. They shout "Allahu Akbar!" ("God is great!").

The disturbing footage, which was shared throughout the world, revealed the brutality of Hamas' attacks in Israel in vivid detail.

At the time, it was unclear whether Louk was dead. Clinging on to the hope that she was still alive, her family pleaded with both the Israeli and German governments to help get the young woman home.

But earlier this week, they received the news they had been dreading: Louk had died, according to the Israeli military.

"When you see soldiers in the house, you know bad news is going to come," her brother, Amit, told Sky News. "So I had this feeling where I'm going to get told something so bad."

Amit said that when he saw the video of his sister, it felt like "someone kicked my family just in the head."

"Seeing my sister in that brutal position and just in that moment, the whole family crashed for a few moments," he added.

A piece of the Louk's skull was identified on the festival site and matched to her DNA, according to the Israeli military.

Her mother told German media that this might indicate that her daughter may have been shot in the head on the day of the attack, and not after. The rest of her body has not yet been found.

"She was just sweetness, just light, joyous, sweetness."

Louk was a sweet and creative person who loved to travel and go to raves, according to people close to her.

She was born on February 7, 2001, to an Israeli father and a German mother. Louk's mother, Ricarda, had grown up in Ravensburg, Germany, but moved to Israel in the early 1990s, German magazine Der Spiegel reported.

While she never lived in Germany herself, Louk often visited her maternal grandparents there, according to Der Spiegel. Footage on the Instagram account of her sister, Adi, appears to show the girls enjoying the German countryside together.

n the early years of her life, Louk's family moved to Portland, Oregon, after her father, Nissim, got a job at Intel.

There, she attended kindergarten at the private Portland Jewish Academy. Former teacher Devorah Spilman told local media that Louk was "just sweetness, just light, joyous, sweetness" as a child.

"She's one of those children who just loved what was happening, everything that was going on, and that is just the light that she was," Spilman added.

The family eventually moved back to Israel, when Louk started to rebel against social norms.

Louk's aunt, Orly, told Der Spiegel that the teenager didn't want to go to college, choosing to pursue tattooing instead.

She was a free soul who loved to travel around the world with her Mexican boyfriend, Orión Hernández Radoux, who was also taken during the attack, Orly added. (It is unclear whether Radoux is dead or being held hostage).

Louk was also a "convinced pacifist" and refused to undergo the usually compulsory military service for Israelis, her aunt added. But her dual citizenship helped her and she never enrolled, Orly added.

Louk was living in Israel's bustling capital city Tel Aviv, at the time of her attack.

Going to a festival was not unusual for the 22-year-old, who loved to dance and frequently posted videos of parties she was attending on social media.

"She was artistic in every way, in the way she was talking, in the way she was moving, in the way she danced," brother Amit recalled to Sky News.

"There was no dark side. Only pure, pure, pure, pure angel. At least I know she went through this whole life without being a bad person for a second," he added.

She was also very active on social media, posting regularly on her Instagram and TikTok accounts. Her Instagram profile, now deactivated, had more than 13,000 followers. Her TikTok had more than 15,000.

In other photos posted by her sister, the Louk family appears to be very close.

One picture shows them posing in all-black together while another image just shows the two girls in Greece in 2017.

"My beautiful sister," the caption reads.

"At least she didn't suffer"

Since learning of her death, Louk's parents said they were sad but also relieved.

"We know that she did not suffer, that she is dead, and that she is not held hostage, and isn't badly injured," her mother said, "It is also comforting to know that she doesn't have to experience the war."

Meanwhile, Louk's father, Nissim, told Israeli News Channel N12 that he is happy knowing that his daughter spent her last moments partying with friends, and "did not suffer."

"Until about 6.45 a.m., Shani was still dancing, cheering, and being wild at the party and was surrounded by all her best friends — and they had fun all night," he said. "She had fun until the last moment."

"She is a beautiful girl who loves to dance," he added. "Everyone loves her. She is very smart and witty. That's how I want her to be remembered."