‘Fear of being raped’: Mia Shem, a former Hamas hostage, talks about her captivity in the Gaza Strip

Held hostage by Hamas for 54 days, French-Israeli Mia Shem spoke about her captivity and her “fear of being raped” by her captor during an interview on a private Israeli television channel broadcast Friday night.

“There is fear of being raped, fear of death, fear… just fear,” the 21-year-old said in Hebrew on Channel 13. After she was kidnapped on October 7 while she was at the Nova music festival tribe on the outskirts of the Gaza Strip, she explained that she was being held in the home of one of her captors.

“His children came to me like a pet.”

“I was at his house, his family’s house. His wife was near the room with the children. “That’s the only reason he didn’t rape me,” she said, explaining that her captor kept his eyes on her. “His children came to me like I was a pet,” she added.

During her captivity, she remained “locked,” “in a dark room,” “forbidden to speak.” Wounded during the abduction, she said she had “no painkillers.” The young woman was the first hostage to appear in a video released by Hamas on October 16.

“I didn’t sleep during those 54 days, maybe an hour a night,” because “how can you sleep when you’re being watched and examined by a terrorist?” “, she admitted. “There are no innocent citizens there,” she also accused, saying that all families in the Gaza Strip are members of Hamas.

Kidnapped at the Nova Festival.

She also said that the area where the house where she was being held was bombed. “The windows were broken,” the young woman said, adding that she had “confidence in the Israeli army.”

On the morning of Saturday, October 7, Mia Shem took part in the Tribe of Nova festival with her 27-year-old friend Elia Toledano, also a French-Israeli. “I was at the festival with Elya,” she said, talking about her abduction: “The terrorists started shooting at us, Elya and I were one of the first to escape. I was driving, our tires were shot out (…) One of them looked at me and shot me in the hand.”

She was released by Hamas on November 30 during a truce between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement. As for her friend Eli, who was kidnapped like her, the Israeli army announced his death on December 15th.