An airstrike has killed a Hamas terrorist accused of taking part in the abduction and murder of Israeli hostage Shani Louk during the October 7 massacre.
The death of Tamer Muhammad Ibrahim al-Sabbagh in Jabalia, northern Gaza, on Monday means every member of the Hamas cell filmed abducting Louk on October 7, 2023, is now dead or in custody. Three other members were killed during the conflict, while another was captured by Israeli forces.
Shocking images taken by Associated Press freelance photographer Ali Mahmud showed a half-naked woman lying unconscious and face-down in the bed of a pickup truck in Gaza. She was later identified as German-Israeli citizen Louk.
Video of armed men parading her through Gaza’s streets quickly spread around the world. The footage became one of the most enduring symbols of the atrocities attributed to Hamas and prompted urgent fears over Louk’s fate.
Louk, a 22-year-old tattoo artist, was kidnapped from the Nova music festival near Re’im and later died in the Gaza Strip.
Forensic examiners confirmed her death in late October 2023 after identifying a fragment of her skull.
Several months later, in May 2024, Israel Defense Forces soldiers operating in Gaza recovered Louk’s remains and brought them back to Israel for burial.
The IDF said al-Sabbagh had carried out advanced attacks against Israeli troops and civilians and worked to rebuild Hamas’s military capabilities, acting “in systematic violation of the ceasefire.”
The death of Tamer Muhammad Ibrahim al-Sabbagh in Jabalia, northern Gaza, on Monday means every member of the Hamas cell filmed abducting Louk on October 7, 2023, is now dead or in custody. Three others were killed during the conflict and one was captured by Israeli forces.
Shani Louk was abducted from the Nova music festival near Re’im and died in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli troops recovered Louk’s remains in Gaza in May 2024 and returned them to Israel for burial.
“The terrorist was eliminated in order to remove the threat he posed,” the IDF said.
For months, Louk’s family pursued every possible lead from outside Gaza. They used their network of contacts to locate someone inside the enclave who could search for her and report back on her whereabouts and condition.
Those hopes ended in May 2024, when IDF soldiers conducting a nighttime raid in Gaza found human remains believed to be Louk’s.
Her father, Nissim, said he became certain a few days later that his daughter was dead after an Israeli police officer brought him an envelope containing her necklace, earrings, nose and lip piercings, as well as official documents confirming her death.
Louk’s remains had been concealed in a tunnel about ten metres underground beneath a house in northern Gaza. The bodies of three other hostages—Itzhak Gelerenter, Amit Buskila and Ron Benjamin—were found alongside hers.
“I was relieved, because we didn’t know where she was,” Nissim said in an interview with i24 News after her body was returned.
“Maybe they threw her into a well or maybe she’s buried somewhere.”
He added: “Yesterday we got all the answers and we closed this loop. We are happy that now she will have her own place next to us, and we can go there whenever we want, and she can rest.”
Nissim had earlier told Israeli media that his daughter’s body was remarkably well-preserved because it had been kept in a “deep and very cold tunnel.”
Speaking to Our News Outlet, Ricarda, Louk’s mother, said: ‘It is like closing a circle. Her spirit is free already half a year, but now her body is back home and can rest in peace.’
Seven months on from the tragedy, Louk was laid to rest in the town of Srigim, with her family inviting the public to attend the farewell.
In her last moments she called her sister to tell her ‘everything will be okay’, her father told those gathered at her funeral.
Nissim spoke emotionally at the gathering for his child: ‘As a father I failed to protect you. Forgive me’.
According to the IDF, the other terrorists involved in the kidnapping of Louk were Attiya Daour, killed on August 20, 2025, Basel Cheleh, killed on December 6, 2023, Mustafa Shaheen, killed on October 10, 2023, and Mustafa Ala Khatib, who has been captured by Israeli forces.
In September, Israel announced it had tracked down and killed the Hamas terrorist suspected of kidnapping hostages Noa Argamani and Avinatan Or during the October 7 attacks.
Saher Nidal Latfi Sakr supplied weapons to Hamas during the war and rode the motorbike used to kidnap Ms Argamani from the Nova music festival and take them into Gaza in 2023.
The terrorist was killed by an airstrike on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, in an operation carried out by Israel Police’s Gideonim Unit 33.
The IDF said Sakr was affiliated with ‘global jihadist organisations’ and was involved in attacks on troops and Israeli civilians.
It said in a statement: ‘Recently, Sakr advanced attacks targeting Israeli civilians and IDF troops. He was eliminated in order to remove the threat he posed.’
Footage of Argamani’s kidnapping at the desert rave, where almost 400 partygoers were killed, was one of the first videos of the massacre to surface and became one of the most widely recognised images of the attacks.
She was seen seated on the back of a motorcycle behind her Hamas captor, screaming ‘don’t kill me’ and stretching her arms out toward her boyfriend Mr Or.
Further footage showed her crying out while being manhandled by a group of terrorists on the motorbike, with one of them forcibly holding a black bag over her head.
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Israel has tracked down and killed the Hamas terrorist suspected of kidnapping Israeli hostage Noa Argamani during the October 7, 2023 attacks
Footage of Ms Argamani’s kidnapping at the desert rave, where almost 400 partygoers were killed, was one of the first videos of the massacre to surface
Saher Nidal Latfi Sakr was killed in an airstrike on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, in an operation by Israel Police’s Gideonim Unit 33
Sakr operated ‘in cooperation with terrorist operatives from the military wings of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist organisations, in systematic violation of the ceasefire agreement,’ the IDF said.
Footage released by the Israeli military, purportedly showing the moment of his death, shows the terrorist walking by a building before an enormous explosion.
His remains can be seen on the pavement as massive plumes of smoke cascade into the air.
Argamani, who is of Chinese heritage, was rescued from Gaza on June 8, 2024, after 246 days in captivity.
As a hostage, she witnessed a fellow captive executed in front of her, was nearly killed in an airstrike, was forcibly starved and worried each day that her terminally ill mother, Liora, had died in Israel.
Doctors since said it was a ‘miracle’ Argamani survived as she was given no medical attention.
Or, who was held separately in central Gaza, was released after 738 days as part of the ceasefire brokered by US President Donald Trump in October 2025.
Trump on Sunday endorsed embattled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu late in his reelection campaign, a coveted boost because of Trump’s popularity but one that the American had withheld for months as the vote neared and the leaders’ strategies in the Middle East diverged.
Trump said in a post on social media that Netanyahu ‘has been a Great Warrior Prime Minister, and an even greater Partner for Peace in combatting the Islamic Republic of Iran’.
Israelis are set to vote October 27, in the first national elections since Hamas attacked Israel.
The absence of an endorsement was a setback for the Likud politician, who had billed his tight ties to the Republican president as a selling point for staying in power.
‘Thank you, President Trump, for the tremendous support and work together,’ Netanyahu said in a statement in Hebrew posted on X. ‘Together we will complete the mission!’
His Likud Party attached to the statement a 35-second video showing clips of the two leaders together and Trump praising Netanyahu.
It was not immediately clear what impact the endorsement would have on what is expected to be a tight race.
Trump is still popular in Israel, but many Israelis, including leading commentators, have expressed disappointment over the inconclusive outcome of the Iran war and Trump’s ceasefire proposal, which fell short of many of the countries’ key goals when they jointly launched the war in February.
In his post, Trump again threatened to ‘soon finish the job’ against Iran ‘unless they change their ways, rapidly,’ but added he might not want to if Netanyahu loses the election.
‘If Israel has the wrong Leader, which would be anyone other than Bibi, America will have to do this work ourselves, and I am not inclined to do so,’ Trump said.
He said Netanyahu had been ‘Strong, Brave, and Brilliant in the face of tremendous opposition, including that coming from even Israel, itself’.
Trump endorsed Netanyahu in past elections and in November he sent a letter to Israeli President Isaac Herzog asking him to pardon Netanyahu on corruption charges.
But Trump’s comments about Netanyahu in recent months had been much more subdued, and he repeatedly demurred when asked if he would back the prime minister.
The president, when asked in a Time magazine interview published this month about backing the Israeli leader, said, ‘I’m not involved in politics anymore,’ despite his campaigning for and endorsing US politicians.
Trump, especially in his second term, has sought to give his stamp of approval to candidates in foreign elections and claimed credit when they have been successful.
He endorsed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in his unsuccessful bid for a fifth term, as well as Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and Polish President Karol Nawrocki, and several Latin American leaders.
Trump and Netanyahu have been close allies and seemed more aligned than ever in the wake of the joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities in 2025.
But over the course of the nearly eight-month war with Iran this year, they have had disagreements.
Trump criticised Israel’s decision to attack a key Iranian gas field in the first weeks of the war.
In June, he called Netanyahu ‘crazy’.
Trump also said that he was ‘a little bit perturbed’ as Israel’s fighting with Hezbollah militants in Lebanon was holding back peace talks with Iran.
Beyond Iran, Netanyahu in August rejected Trump’s latest plan to advance a stalled ceasefire in Gaza, pushing back on the US administration’s call for Israel to withdraw from territory it controls in Gaza until Hamas has been disarmed.
