French-Israeli Mia Shem, held hostage by Hamas for 54 days, recounted her captivity and her “fear of being raped by her prison guard” in an interview broadcast on a private Israeli television channel on Friday evening.
“There's the fear of rape, the fear of dying, the fear of…just fear,” the 21-year-old said in Hebrew on Channel 13 after she was kidnapped on Oct. 7 while with the tribe At the Nova music festival on the edge of the Gaza Strip, she explained that she had been held in the house of one of her captors.
“His children came to me as if I were a pet”
“I was at his house, his family’s house. His wife was outside the room with the children. “That’s the only reason he didn’t rape me,” she said, explaining that her kidnapper never let her out of his sight. “His children came to me like I was a pet,” she added.
During her captivity, she was “locked up,” remained “in a dark room,” and was “forbidden from speaking.” She was shot during her abduction and said she had “no painkillers.” The young woman was the first hostage to appear in a video released by Hamas on October 16.
“I haven't slept in these 54 days, maybe an hour a night, because 'how can you sleep when a terrorist is looking at you and examining you?'” she confided. “There are no innocent citizens there,” she also accused, claiming that all families in Gaza are part of Hamas.
Kidnapped at the Nova Festival
She also said that the area where the house where she was held was located was bombed. “The windows were blown out,” the young woman said, adding that she had “trust in the Israeli army.”
On Saturday morning, October 7, Mia Shem attended the Tribe of Nova festival with her friend Elya Toledano, 27, also of French-Israeli descent. “I was at the festival with Elya,” she said of her kidnapping: “The terrorists started shooting at us, Elya and I were among the first to escape.” I was driving, they shot us in the tires (… ) One of them looked at me and shot me in the hand.”
She was released by Hamas on November 30 during the ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement. As for her friend Elya, who was kidnapped like her, the Israeli army announced his death on December 15.