21-year-old Mia Schem was at a music festival in southern Israel when armed Hamas members stormed the border from the Gaza Strip on 7 October.
Over 300 people were killed on the festival grounds, and dozens were taken hostage by militant Palestinians.
Schem was released on November 30 as part of the prisoner exchange during the week-long ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
Read the latest news about the conflict between Hamas and Israel
Assault
In an interview broadcast on Israeli television on Friday, Schem said she was captured after she got out of her friend’s burning car.
The Palestinian kidnapper scratched her upper body and only stopped when she screamed. He discovered that she had been shot in the arm and seriously wounded, says Schem.
– I started screaming like crazy. There were burnt-out cars and corpses, she says.
The article continues below the advertisementThe article continues below the advertisement
Denied food
Schem says that she was held captive in a house with a family, and that the father in the house looked after her around the clock. His constant stare made her uncomfortable and full of fear that he might hurt her. The man’s wife did not like her, and sometimes she was denied food for several days at a time, says the 21-year-old.
Israeli authorities have said sexual violence was part of Hamas’ rampage in southern Israel and have accused the international community of downplaying or ignoring the victims’ pain.
Watch video: Have to kneel in the streets in their underwear
The article continues below the advertisementThe article continues below the advertisement
First sign of life
Schem made international headlines when Hamas released a video of her several days after she was taken hostage. In the video, she is lying in a bed while someone bandages her arm, and she says she wants to go home.
At this time, this was the first sign of life from the approximately 250 people abducted from Israel to Gaza.
The article continues below the ad
Schem says she was so scared that she barely slept in captivity, and that she didn’t shower or get any medication either.
She says the jailer’s children sometimes came in and looked at her “as if I were an animal in a zoo”.
Brought to tunnel
Schem says she was brought from the apartment building into a tunnel where she was held captive during the last few days before she was set free.
In the tunnel, she was held captive with six or seven others in a small room, and they were given one pita bread a day, according to the 21-year-old. She says she knew at this point that she would soon be released.
Schem goes on to say that she is following up on a debt towards the other hostages who were left behind. She broke down during the interview and says she has not yet realized that she has returned home or processed the experiences.
– I can’t get it out of my head, she says.
2023-12-30 21:11:13
#started #screaming #crazy #burnt #cars #corpses
