The hostage shown in the Hamas video is French-Israeli
The young girl who appears in a video released this Monday by Hamas and is portrayed as a “prisoner” of the Islamist movement in the Gaza Strip is called Mia Shem. She is a 21-year-old French-Israeli woman who was at the music festival that was attacked in the early hours of the Hamas raid on Israeli soil on October 7th.
“My name is Mia Shem, I am 21 years old and I come from Shoham,” the central Israeli girl says in Hebrew in the video, which shows her right arm being injured and treated.
“At the moment I am in Gaza. I returned from a party in the Sderot region early Saturday morning. I was seriously injured in my hand. They took me to Gaza and put me in the hospital here for three hours. They took care of me and gave me medicine. I simply ask you to return me to my family, my parents, my brothers and sisters as soon as possible. “Please get me out of here as quickly as possible,” she also said.
IDF confirmed on X (ex-Twitter) the girl’s captivity. “In the video released by Hamas, they are trying to portray themselves as human beings. However, it is a terrible terrorist organization responsible for the murder and kidnapping of babies, children, men, women and the elderly,” the Israeli army says, saying it is in contact with the hostage’s family.
His mother, Keren Schem, spoke during the day with French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna – who is traveling to Tel Aviv – and appealed to Emmanuel Macron.
“I wish he would talk to us like President Biden did with the families of Americans via Zoom. I really trust him. “My baby is French too,” she told our colleagues at France 24.
“The French have done so much for human rights, I really expect them to do everything to save my baby. I know that the Americans are working day and night to get their hostages out of Gaza, and I think the French should do the same. France has very good relations in the Middle East,” she added.