In her first public interview since her release, Mia Schem, a 21-year-old Israeli-French tattoo artist who was held captive by Hamas for 54 days, has spoken out about the harrowing ordeal she endured in Gaza.
Schem, who was abducted from a music festival in southern Israel on October 7, described her experience as akin to a "holocaust."
In a preview of her interview with Channel 13, Schem was asked why she felt compelled to share her story. "It was important to me to relay the truth about the nature of the people who live in Gaza, who they truly are and what I experienced there," she responded to journalist Lior Veroslavski. When asked what she wanted the world to understand, she stated, "That I went through a holocaust. Everyone over there is a terrorist."
Schem revealed that she was held captive by a civilian family in Gaza with ties to the terrorist organization. She recounted the confusion and fear she felt, questioning why she was in a family's home and why there were children and a wife present.
Schem, a resident of Shoham in central Israel, was released as part of a temporary ceasefire between Hamas and Israel. Following her release, she took to Instagram to display a new tattoo that reads, "We will dance again," along with the date of her abduction. "I will never forget October 7, 2023," she wrote, referring to the day of her kidnapping. "The pain and the fear, the difficult sights, the friends who wont come back, and those we must bring back. But we will win, we will dance!" she added.
In the early days of the conflict, a disturbing video was released by Hamas showing Schem receiving treatment from a veterinarian for an injury to her right arm. In the video, she confirmed her location in Gaza and revealed that she had undergone a three-hour surgery for undisclosed injuries after being taken across the border.
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