Outrage Erupts Over Prize-Winning Photo Of Israeli Woman's Near-Naked Body That Was Paraded By Hamas

An image of Hamas members parading a slain Jewish woman’s near-naked body through the streets of Gaza has been awarded a photo-of-the-year prize, sparking a fierce outrage on social media.

The graphic photo featuring Shani Louk’s body was among several images that helped the news agency Associated Press (AP) secure first place in one of the Pictures of the Year International award categories earlier this month.

US-based Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute gives this award and describes it as the world’s oldest photojournalism competition, the New York Post reported. The report of this award prompted a severe backlash on social media, with people slamming the use of Louk’s image as an “outrageous desecration of Jewish life.”

READ MORE: ‘My Daughter Is No Longer Alive’: Mother of German-Israeli Woman Who Was Paraded Naked by Hamas

Who Was Shani Louk?

She was a German-Israeli woman who was reportedly abducted to the Gaza Strip during Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack that triggered Israel’s large-scale military campaign in the Palestinian territory. The music festival bordering Gaza, which the 22-year-old had attended, was reportedly one of the first sites to be attacked by Hamas. She was among the dozens of people captured by the members of the Palestinian outfit and paraded through the streets in the back of a pickup truck.

“The person who took this photo was part of the jihadist gang who murdered, tortured and raped civilians. The family didn’t want her remembered like this. This award celebrates her continued desecration. Her name was Shani Louk,” said one of the people outraged by the award.

“The Associated Press Hamas photographer who took a picture of the body of Shani Louk being paraded by terrorists, won a prestigious photography award. Photographers working for AP, CNN, NYT, and Reuters accompanied Hamas terrorists into Israel on 10/7 and knew about the attack,” another user said on X.

One of the videos, which surfaced on the internet in late October, showed a half-naked woman lying unconscious face-down in the back of a pickup truck in Gaza filled with armed men. It was later reported that Shani Louk was taken hostage when terrorists attacked a rave party in the desert near the border with the Gaza Strip. Though Louk has been declared dead, her body has not been returned from Gaza.