Surviving Captivity: Mia Schem's Harrowing Experience

Ilias Achkaoukaou

Opinion - 13 January 2024 - 3 min

Mia Schem is a 21-year-old Israeli French citizen. She was kidnapped by Hamas after fleeing the Nova Music Festival. Early in the genocide, the resistance group released a video of her in captivity.

Mia Schem was operated on for a gunshot wound she suffered and for days afterward she had to share a room with her kidnapper. She was given no painkillers and had to change her bandage. It echoes what the other hostages said: a lack of food and water and minimal access to medical care, but this is all due to Israel. They let in the bare minimum for years and now, with the genocide, they have cut off all food, water, medicine, and fuel.

Mia Schem was released in November during a hostage situation during the temporary ceasefire. The exchange has shed light on how many Palestinian children have been abducted by the Israelis.

Mia Scherm's interviews and written account, which could not be independently confirmed, have provided the most detailed picture of what life was like in captivity.

We cannot confirm whether Mia Schem's claims are true. There could be several reasons why the Hamas soldier did not rape Mia, one of which could be due to all the oppression and killings of Palestinians by the occupying power, Israel. She revealed in an interview with Israeli media why she was not raped by the Hamas soldier.

“His wife was outside the room with the kids… That was the only reason he didn't rape me.”

She said she was starved and taunted by the soldier's family.

“One time this little boy, my sister's age, came into the room with a bag of candy. He came to me, opened the bag, closed it, and left. It is evil… how evil.” – She called a little boy evil…

In her memories since her release, she described being held in a room with her captor in a family home in Gaza. Her only time alone was in the bathroom.

She claims there were days when they wouldn't let her eat, she told Israeli television. At one point, the kidnapper called her to watch television footage of her mother speaking at a news conference. She drew strength from seeing her mother.

Now that she is home, she is struggling to cope with her experiences in Gaza.

“I can't get it out of my head,” she told Israeli television. “Everyone in Gaza is a terrorist.”

We at IIATS Magazine would like to tell Mia that we are sorry she had such a horrible experience, but declaring that everyone is a terrorist in Gaza is like us saying that everyone in Israel is a Nazi. The real terrorist organization is IOF and the Israeli government. Hamas is a resistance group that wants to liberate Palestine from the occupiers.