Nissim Louk, the father of the late Shani Louk, who was murdered in the October 7 massacre after being abducted from the Nova music festival, woke up early that morning after hearing the rockets toward Tel Aviv, he described to 103FM on Sunday morning.
"At around 10:00, one of Shani's friends sent me this picture and told me it could be Shani," he added. "I recognized the small tattoos she had on her leg, and her vehicle had indeed entered Gaza and disappeared."
He also described what led to the painful but important determination that Shani was no longer alive, bringing a measure of closure to the family.
"Two ZAKA members who happened to stop to pray Mincha pulled over at the side of the road, and then suddenly they saw some hair, dreadlocks like that, and a little blood. They carried out a DNA test, and Shani was found. It was really fortunate that they stopped there, found it and sent it to the Institute of Forensic Medicine."
He continued, speaking of his and the nation's pain, saying, "We lost 3,000 children from October 7, and the hardest thing for me is that on Friday night I make Kiddush with the family and suddenly there is an empty chair. There are 3,000 families here making Kiddush, and a child is missing from the table, sometimes two, sometimes three, entire families. Three thousand families make Kiddush on Friday night, and a child is missing from the table. Last week two soldiers fell, and I was on air on Channel 11, and I was thinking about what would happen two hours later, when their fathers make Kiddush and their children are not around the table."
Miri Regev accused of causing October 7
Louk also addressed the controversy that erupted following his encounter with Transportation Minister Miri Regev and the harsh criticism he directed at her.
"Just as I came up from the parking lot at Mahane Yehuda, I parked the car and so on. I hadn't seen anything beforehand. When I came upstairs, I saw some friends, I saw Miri Regev's caravan, I saw them taking pictures, outfits and so on.
"I was probably already angry beforehand, and suddenly the Mizrahi in me came out. It's very easy to make a Mizrahi angry. Then I told them, 'They caused October 7, you caused the murder of my daughter.' Miri Regev was a little surprised and then immediately went into her caravan. She disappeared completely," Louk said, describing the minister's reaction.
"Then all kinds of people from her entourage came up to me, pretty pro-Bibi people. Not that I have anything against Bibi supporters, but then they came and told me, 'You caused October 7.'"
"Miri Regev's daughter was evacuated from Nova at 4:30 in the morning," he said, adding, "They evacuated her before this whole event. I don't want to ask all those questions. If that's true, then there are things here that we don't understand at all."
Gaza hostage's father criticizes Likud Party
He went on to sharply criticize the ruling Likud Party.
"I was very angry at Likud for becoming the Left. This Left is destroying the country. The money and the bribery, bribery blinds us, it is destroying the people of Israel from within."
In closing, he said, "My daughter's name is Shani. Shani is a very strange name. It speaks about change, something new that is supposed to happen. What is Shani? Shani is, left against right, and therefore we are obligated to lower the flames. We owe a blood debt to 3,000 children. That blood is connected to the entire people of Israel. The soldiers who run into battle know that they have a debt to the blood, and that debt will not disappear until we make a change.
"There must be change among the people of Israel. We need to restore integrity, restore the values we grew up with, restore love, restore justice, and also religion. Nothing happened. We need to take back the land for ourselves, touch it and understand that it is ours. It cannot be that Netanyahu is giving away the land."