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Images of the reunion between Mia Schem, her brother and her mother on an Israeli military base this Thursday, November 30.
INTERNATIONAL – Mia Schem, who was held captive by Hamas for 55 days before being released under a temporary ceasefire on November 30, spoke publicly for the first time to talk about her detention in the Gaza Strip.
She spoke during an interview with Channel 13, an Israeli television channel, excerpts of which were revealed this Thursday, December 28 while waiting for the entire interview to be broadcast on Friday.
She explains that she wants to speak out for “ tell the truth » about what she has « lived there “. “I experienced a holocaust”she declares. “I was on the ground, covered in blood, I screamed that I had lost my hand […] someone started touching my upper body, then out of nowhere someone pulled me by my hair. They put me in a car and we went to Gaza”she says.
The 21-year-old young woman, who wears a bandage on her arm, also talks about the operation she underwent, without painkillers: “I was like an animal in a zoo […] I almost choked on my own tears.”.
Detained in the house of a Palestinian family
As for her detention itself, she explains that she was held in a dark room and realized that she was in the house of a Palestinian family. According to her, the whole family was “involved with Hamas, including women and children”. She thus accuses all Palestinians of being terrorists.
“I asked myself “why am I being held in a family home?” “Why are there children and a woman here?” »she continues.
“It is important for me to reveal the truth about the people who live in Gaza, about who they really are”she still assures in the extract revealed by the channel.
129 hostages still held in Gaza
Some 250 people were taken hostage during the bloody Hamas attack on Israeli soil on October 7, which left around 1,140 dead, according to an AFP count based on the latest official figures. To date, 129 are still being held in Gaza, according to Israeli authorities.
At least 21,320 people, mostly women, children and adolescents, were killed in the Gaza Strip, relentlessly bombarded by the Israeli army, according to the Hamas authorities in power in this Palestinian territory totally besieged by Israel.
A truce, in place from November 24 to December 1, allowed the release of 105 hostages in Gaza, including 80 in exchange for 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
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