'Went through a Holocaust': Freed Israeli hostage Mia Schem describes Hamas horror

In one of her first interviews since being released at the end of last month, freed Israeli hostage Mia Schem opened up about the horrific conditions she lived in while being held captive in Gaza. The 21-year-old spent 54 days as a hostage in the Palestinian enclave after being shot and dragged at the Nova festival massacre in southern Israel on 7 October. She was among the last eight captives to be freed as part of Israel and Hamas’ seven-day cease-fire agreement, which began and ended last month. Let’s take a closer look. “Went through a holocaust” While speaking to Israel’s Channel 13, Mia Schem said, “It was important for me to reflect on the real situation about the people living in Gaza – who they really are, and what I’ve been through over there.” “I went through a holocaust. Everyone over there is a terrorist.” [caption id=“attachment_13556572” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Mia Schem, 21, reunites with her family following her release after being held hostage by the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip, at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, Israel. Reuters[/caption] The French-Israeli tattoo artist, who is from the central Israeli town of Shoham, claimed that she was held with a civilian family, with children, in Gaza. “These are families under the Hamas regime. I suddenly realised that I was staying with a family. I started asking myself questions, why am I staying with a family? Why are there children here? Why is there a woman here?” She was taken hostage at the Nova music festival by Hamas gunmen, along with her 27-year-old friend Elia Toledano. “Vet operated on the arm” Before being freed, she said in a video, “People very good, very kind to me… Food good and the kindness and everything good.” The video raised suspicions that she had been forced to talk against her will since it contradicted the testimonies of other captives who had described abuse during Hamas captivity. Schem’s case was massively covered by the media, among other captives, after Hamas released a video in the early stages of the conflict that showed her recovering from surgery. “Hi, I’m Mia Schem, 21 years old, from Shoham. Currently, I’m in Gaza. I was seriously injured in my hand. I underwent surgery on my arm at the hospital for three hours. They are taking care of me, giving me medicine, everything is fine,” she said in Hebrew at the time.

Although the extent of the injuries is unknown, Schem claims that she had a three-hour surgery in Gaza. Speaking about the surgery with Israel’s Channel 12, she revealed there was “no anesthesia” or anything while adding, “I choked up from the pain, and (the person operating) looks at me and says, ‘Stop it! Or I’ll send you to the tunnels’.” Further describing her ordeal, she said, “You’re like an animal in the safari.” She recalled the moment she was abducted by Hamas gunmen while covered in her own blood, “I was screaming, ‘My hand is gone!’ (The terrorist) started touching me in my upper body, then suddenly someone pulled me by my hair, threw me in a vehicle, and we went to Gaza,” as per Sky News. Her family expressed concerns that she had not been treated properly after her release from captivity. “She is thin, she is weak. A vet operated on her arm. She did not receive physiotherapy,” Schem’s aunt Vivian Hadar told reporters. Survivor’s guilt Speaking of the survivor’s guilt she feels since her release, Schem said, “It was the hardest thing in the world. (The other hostages) said, ‘Mia, please, don’t let them forget about us’. And I’m apologising for being freed. ‘Sorry, sorry’.” Schem, who was studying tattooing and working at a tattoo shop before she was abducted, was referred to by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum as “a young woman with an old soul.” Since then, the 21-year-old has posted photos of herself on Instagram with a fresh tattoo that says, “We will dance again. 7.10.23.” Two weeks ago, the post was uploaded, with the caption “I will never forget the 7.10.23. The pain and fear, the hard scenes, the friends who won’t come back and the ones we have to bring back. But we will still win, We will still dance!”

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Slept on chairs, hours of wait for bathroom: What hostages went through during 50 days of captivity in Gaza

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Other hostages recount horrific details Several freed hostages have provided in-depth narratives on their captivity, however, the available reports were not all the same. After being released from captivity, Israeli captive Ruti Munder, 78, told Channel 13 that the conditions were reasonable when the conflict began. They first had “chicken with rice, all sorts of canned food, and cheese. We were OK,” she said, according to The Associated Press. However, when “the economic situation was not good, and people were hungry,” the menu was modified. She said hostages slept on plastic chairs and had limited provisions, some lacking a cover to sleep with at night, as per Dailymail. The room where she was held was ‘suffocating,’ and the captives were prevented from opening the blinds, but she managed to crack open a window. “It was very difficult,” she said. Some of the boys would sleep on the floor, Munder said, adding that she would wake up late to pass the time. For those unaware, Israel has tightened its grip on Gaza ever since the conflict broke out, which has resulted in a shortage of essential supplies like food and fuel. Doctors claimed that an 84-year-old woman who had not received the required care while in captivity was also admitted to the hospital in a life-threatening condition. Upon her release, Aviva Siegel allegedly informed the Israeli war cabinet and relatives of the hostages about how guards had broken her husband’s ribs and that he was “barely” able to sit or eat. Released non-Israelis under different agreements also conveyed a note of caution about the conditions in which hostages are held in Gaza. As Israeli airstrikes rained down on the besieged enclave, Yelena Trufanov, a Russian citizen freed separately, expressed her concerns. “You have no idea what you’re doing there. And I know the conditions they’re holding the men in are worse, worse than for the women.” “I was dehydrated for 51 days; they didn’t give us water; they are inhumane,” one unnamed woman said. Incidents of sexual assault “They touch girls, and everyone knows it. I won’t recount details, but we had a procedure where no one moves without someone guarding them,” another female hostage said, as reported by Israeli newspaper Haaretz, who added, “Medications ran out, and they gave us the wrong drugs.” At least 10 captives had reportedly experienced sexual abuse during their time in captivity, according to a doctor treating them. Following the treatment of some of the 110 hostages released during a week-long truce in late November, the medic declared that both men and women had suffered physical torture while being held captive. But his statements were consistent with those of other released captives, who described at a closed-door gathering of government representatives on 5 December how women had been “touched” by Hamas guards and begged Israel to take further action to ensure the release of the other hostages, as per Dailymail. Israel-Hamas war After Hamas launched its deadly attack on 7 October, over 240 hostages were taken away from southern Israel into Gaza. As armed Hamas gunmen targeted residential kibbutzim and the Nova music festival near Re’im, more than 1,200 people were also killed in the attack. During a week-long ceasefire at the end of November, Hamas freed around 100 hostages, the majority of whom had consented to be released as part of an agreement with Israel. Only women and children were among the 110 hostages who were freed by December 1st. In the weeks that followed, some captives were declared dead.