Freed Israeli hostage Mia Schem has described the horror she faced in Gaza after being released during the ceasefire. The 21-year-old Israeli-French tattoo artist said she “went through a holocaust” during the 54 days she was held captive.
“It was important to me to relay the truth about the nature of the people who live in Gaza, who they are truly are and what I experienced there,” Mia told journalist Lior Veroslavski in an interview with Channel 13.
“It was important to you that the world understands what?” Lior asked. “That I went through a holocaust,” Mia replied. “Everyone over there is a terrorist.”
Mia said she was held by a civilian family in Gaza after being abducted by Hamas from the Nova music festival. The family was allegedly involved with the terror group.
“Suddenly I realized that I’m with a family,” Mia, a resident of Shoham in central Israel, said. “Suddenly I’m asking myself questions: Why am I in some family’s home? Why are there kids here? Why is there a wife?”
Days after Mia was abducted, a disturbing video that surfaced showed her pleading for help, asking to get back home. She was seen in the video being given medical care for a wound on her arm, before she pleads for help. The clip was reportedly released by the terrorists.
In the video, Mia claimed that she had a three-hour surgery in Gaza, as per a translation from Hebrew by the Jerusalem Post. “They are taking care of me, giving me medicine, everything is fine. I only ask that they bring me home as soon as possible to my parents, to my siblings,” she said. “Get me out of here as soon as possible. Please.”
Mia also shared a photo on Instagram, of a tatto saying, “We will dance again,” accompanied by the date “7.10.2025.” ““I will never forget October 7, 2023,” she wrote in the caption. “The pain and the fear, the difficult sights, the friends who won’t come back, and those we must bring back. But we will win, we will dance!”
