The 21-year-old French tattoo artist kidnapped and wounded by Hamas terrorists said she is convinced there is only one reason she was not raped by her captor during 54 hellish days in captivity.
“His wife was outside the room with the children,” freed hostage Mia Schem said during an interview recently published on Israeli television. “That was the only reason she didn’t rape me.”
Schem, who has dual Israeli and French citizenship, said her torturer kept her in a dark room under constant surveillance for most of her time in Gaza.
She said the terrorist’s family starved her and mocked her as she wondered if they would kill her at some point.
“[I was] locked in a dark room, not allowed to speak, not allowed to be seen, heard, hidden,” Schem told Israel’s Channel 13. “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,” Schem said, at times bursting into tears as she recounted the ordeal. “His wife hated the fact that he and I were in the same room. You feel like you want a hug, you know, from woman to woman, to break down a little.
Mia Schem, 21, was among more than 200 hostages taken by Hamas on October 7. She was freed during a ceasefire in late November. ISRAEL CHANNEL 13 NEWS via Reuters Schem said the only reason her Hamas captor didn’t rape her is because her wife and children were in the room next to her. ISRAEL CHANNEL 13 NEWS via Reuters
“That’s all you had there. But she was so bad, she had such bad eyes.”
Schem was among more than 200 Israelis taken hostage during the October 7 sneak attack by Hamas terrorists, who killed more than 1,200 people in the assault.
She was attending the Nova music festival, near the border with the Gaza Strip, when violent invaders chased down young Israelis attending the festival.
The 21-year-old was shot in the arm during the invasion.
Schem said he tried to flee, but the terrorists shot at his car and set it on fire, leaving him with only two options at the time.
Schem, who has dual French and Israeli citizenship, was at the Nova music festival on October 7 when Hamas attacked Israel. Instagram she was handed over to the Red Cross after 54 days of captivity in Gaza.
“It was a split-second decision, whether to stay put and burn to death or go with him,” he said.
She was loaded into a van and taken to Gaza, where a makeshift splint was placed on her injured arm.
They then took her to a Palestinian house and held her captive.
At times, Israeli bombs from a counteroffensive by the Jewish state shook the house and even broke the windows at one point, he said in the television interview.
“I thought: ‘If I didn’t die on the 7th [of October]”I’m going to die now,” Schem said, but added that he “trusted the military.”
Schem (center) reunites with his family at Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer, Ramat Gan, Israel. AP
In November, she was one of the hostages freed during a brief ceasefire, but she said she still bears the scars of her nightmare and contempt for those who took her freedom.
“It was important to me to convey the truth about the nature of the people living in Gaza, who they really are and what I experienced there,” he said in the interview.
“For you it is important that the world understands, what? “That I went through a holocaust,” Schem added. “Everyone there is a terrorist.”
With post cables
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Source: vtt.edu.vn