Hamas released the first clip on Monday evening showing an Israeli hostage being held by the terror group in the Gaza Strip. After the massive attack by Palestinian terrorists in southern Israel on October 7, there were around 200 to 250 prisoners in the coastal enclave.
The short video showed a young woman, 21-year-old Mia Schem, being treated for an arm injury and later speaking to the camera.
Shem was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists while attending the desert rave at Kibbutz Re’im where the gunmen killed over 1,300 people, the vast majority civilians, as part of the devastating massacre, including over 260 festival-goers killed.
She told the camera that she underwent three hours of surgery and that “I’m being cared for, I’m being given medication.” All I’m asking is to be returned home as quickly as possible, to my family, to my parents, to my siblings . Please get me out of here as quickly as possible.”
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Schem’s family reacted to the clip by saying: “We are happy.”
Shem appears to have been targeted by Hamas because she is a dual Israeli-French citizen, and the terror group appears to want international audiences to believe that it does not harm foreigners.
The Israel Defense Forces said Shem’s family was informed last week that she was being held in Gaza.
The army said that in the video, Hamas “attempts to portray itself as a humanitarian organization, when in reality it is a murderous terrorist group responsible for the murders and kidnappings of babies, women, children and the elderly.”
The IDF added that it continues to work “with all intelligence and operational means” to return the more than 200 hostages.
Hundreds flee gunmen at a music festival near Kibbutz Re’im, October 7, 2023. (Used under Section 27a of the Copyright Law)
The release of the video came as Hamas military spokesman Abu Obeida said there was “no definitive number of prisoners due to “security and practical difficulties” but said there were 200 to 250 in Gaza and that 200 of them were in prison Gaza Strip is in the hands of Hamas.
In a televised statement, he said about 50 others were being held by other “resistance groups and in other locations.”
Foreign hostages are “our guests,” Abu Obeida claimed, promising to protect and release them whenever conditions “on the ground” allow.
Abu Obeida said the threat of an Israeli ground operation in Gaza “does not scare us and we are prepared for it.”
He also named an Israeli hostage who was reportedly killed in an Israeli bombing in recent hours.
Abu Obeida, spokesman for the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing, makes a video statement on July 23, 2019. (Screenshot/Facebook/File)
Khaled Mashaal, a prominent Hamas figure and the group’s former political leader, said in a separate interview that there were 6,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons and boasted that Hamas had enough hostages – including senior officials from the Gaza Division IDF – hold on Free them all.
He also said that Gazans will not leave the Gaza Strip despite the war and that their expulsion would endanger Egypt’s national security and pose a danger to Jordan, implying that a mass exodus of Palestinians to a neighboring country sets a precedent for the West could create bank.
He praised the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah for taking “action” against Israel while it carries out limited attacks along the northern border, but noted that Hamas needs more support.