"Like Animal In Safari": Freed Hostage Mia Schem On 54-Day Hamas Captivity

A freed Israeli hostage shared her harrowing experience of being held captive by Hamas fighters in Gaza for 54 days. Mia Schem said that she “went through a holocaust”.

“It was important to me to relay the truth about the nature of the people who live in Gaza, who they are truly are and what I experienced there,” she said in her interview with Channel 13. “I went through a holocaust. Everyone over there is a terrorist,” the 21-year-old said.

מייה שם חוזרת לחיים אחרי 54 ימים בשבי חמאס - ומספרת למה החליטה לדבר | מחר ב-20:00 במהדורה המרכזית@liorvero pic.twitter.com/mrkXwTDIzx

Mia Schem mentioned that she was kidnapped from a music festival in southern Israel on October 7, and held captive by a civilian family in Gaza associated with the Palestinian outfit, 

“Suddenly I realised that I'm with a family,” she said. “Suddenly I'm asking myself questions: Why am I in some family's home? Why are there kids here? Why is there a wife?”

In a separate interview with Channel 12 News, Mia Schem said that she felt "like an animal in the safari."

While she was held captive, she received treatment for a gunshot wound in her arm from a veterinarian, as reported by the New York Post. In a chilling video released by Hamas at the time, she was heard pleading, “They are taking care of me, giving me medicine, everything is fine. I only ask that they bring me home as soon as possible to my parents, to my siblings. Get me out of here as soon as possible. Please.”

Mia Schem was freed in a prisoner-hostage exchange during a temporary cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. After her release, she made a bold appearance on Instagram, sporting a new tattoo with the defiant message, "We will dance again”, also featuring the date of the attack. 

“We will never forget,” she wrote as the caption. “The pain and the fear, the difficult sights, the friends who won't come back, and those we must bring back. But we will win, we will dance!” she added.  

Around 240 hostages were reportedly taken in the Hamas raid on Israel on October 7, and approximately 1200 people lost their lives.