Freed Israeli hostage Mia Schem speaks about captivity

FRANCE 24 English

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00:00 Mia Shem was reunited with her family after being released by Hamas in a swap deal on

00:06 November 30th.

00:08 Now a month on, back in Israel, the 21-year-old is speaking out about her ordeal.

00:13 "I didn't sleep for the entire 54 days, maybe an hour night.

00:21 How can you sleep when a terrorist is looking at you, watching you?"

00:26 The French-Israeli former hostage told Israeli broadcaster Channel 13 that she was held at

00:31 a family home in Gaza.

00:33 "It's families that are under Hamas control.

00:37 I suddenly realised that I was with a family.

00:39 I started asking myself, why am I at a family's house?

00:43 Everyone there is a terrorist."

00:45 Shem said her food was sometimes restricted during those seven weeks, during which she

00:50 was scared of being raped or killed.

00:52 "I was in a dark room, not allowed to talk, not allowed to be seen or heard, hidden away.

01:01 There's a terrorist watching you 24/7, looking at you, raping you with his eyes.

01:07 His wife was outside the room with the children.

01:11 That was the only reason he didn't rape me.

01:14 Most likely if we were alone."

01:19 Shem was abducted on October 7th from the Nova festival with her friend Elia Toledano.

01:25 He was found dead in Gaza in mid-December.

01:29 Hamas are still holding 129 of the 240 hostages the militants took on October 7th, when they

01:35 also killed 1,200 people.

01:39 Since then, Israel's offensive has killed some 21,000 Palestinians and driven nearly

01:45 all of the enclave's 2.3 million people from their homes.

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