A French-Israeli woman who was one of dozens of people taken as hostages by Hamas militants described in a shocking story that she feared being raped by the armed man who was watching her 24 hours a day in the house where he lived with his wife and children in Loop.
Mia Schem21, was released in late November under an expired ceasefire between Israel and Hamasand her case became known because during her captivity Palestinian militants released video images in which she was seen receiving treatment for a gunshot wound to her arm.
The shocking story of the Hamas hostage
Interviewed by Israeli television, Schem recalled that the October 7 was dancing at a party near the Gaza border when men from Hamas stormed the site and killed hundreds of people. He tried to flee, but his car was shot at and set on fire. After healing his wound, he surrendered.
“It was a split-second decision, whether to stay and burn to death or go with him,” she told Israel’s Channel 13, referring to a Hamas militant who captured her as she got out of the burning car.
Transferred to the Gaza Strip in a van, Schem said she was kept in a room for three days while a rudimentary splint was placed on her injured arm. Afterwards they took her to the house of a militant Hamaswho watched her next to her bed.
In that sense, she told details about her kidnapping and revealed that she was “locked in a dark room, unable to speak, unable to be seen or heard, hidden. There is a terrorist watching you 24/7, watching you, raping you with his eyes.”
“There is fear of being raped, there is fear of dying. I was afraid,” she admitted. Upon release the November 30while still in Gaza, Schem claimed that she had been well treated, but in the last interview she said that she had felt obligatory to give that version.
The reason why the Hamas captor did not rape her
Regarding the reason why her captor did not rape her, Mia Schem added that the presence of her wife in the house had calmed her, although the woman treated her with hostility. “She was outside the room with the children. That was the only reason I he didn’t rape me“.
During his 54 days as a hostagesaid that the captor’s wife had “played” with her, serving food to her husband while denying food to her.
“His wife I hated the fact that he and I were in the same room.” Schem said. “You feel like you want a hug, woman to woman, so you don’t have to be strong for a moment. That’s all you had there. But she was so bad, she had such bad eyes: a bad woman.” Furthermore, he added that, at one point, the captor had confided in him that he did not love his wife.
Regarding her days in captivity, Mia said that the sound of Israeli bombings on the Palestinian enclave did not bother her, although the windows of the building where she was held shattered and she was temporarily deafened. “I thought, ‘If I didn’t die on (October 7), I’m not going to die now.’ I trusted the military“he assured.
However, help came too late for Schem’s best friend, Elia Toledano, who was kidnapped with her but taken elsewhere, died in what Hamas said was an Israeli airstrike. The Army, which recovered his body along with those of four other hostages this month, stated that the circumstances of their deaths were being investigated.
Source: Ambito
