Shani Louk abductor killed in IDF airstrike in Jabalia

A Hamas terrorist who helped abduct Shani Louk on October 7, 2023, died in an Israeli airstrike in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip, on Monday. The IDF and the Shin Bet security service announced the strike on Tuesday.

Arutz Sheva identified the man as Tamer Mohammad Ibrahim Al-Zabaq. He belonged to the Nukhba force of Hamas's military wing. On October 7 he crossed into Israeli territory and took part in seizing Louk.

Louk, a 22-year-old German-Israeli, was among the people Hamas terrorists attacked at the Nova festival near Kibbutz Re'im. After the massacre, video spread showing terrorists crowded around her body as it was carried through Gaza on the bed of a pickup truck. Her death was confirmed in October 2023, and Israeli forces brought her remains back from Gaza in May 2024.

The military described Al-Zabaq as an active threat at the time of the strike.

"Throughout the war, and specifically recently, the terrorist advanced attacks against IDF troops and Israeli civilians and operated to restore the terrorist organization's military capabilities, in systematic violation of the ceasefire," the military stated.

The IDF said the airstrike was intended to remove that threat. It also said precision munitions and aerial surveillance were used beforehand to limit the danger to civilians.

"The security forces are deployed in the area in accordance with the agreement and will continue to operate to remove any threat," the IDF concluded.

As reported in May 2024, Louk's body was recovered in the same operation that brought back the bodies of Ron Binyamin, Yitzhak Gerlenter and Amit Bouskila. At the time, the IDF and Shin Bet said the intelligence that located them came from the interrogation of captured terrorists and other intelligence information.