A 21-year-old French tattoo artist who was abducted and injured by Hamas terrorists says he believes there is only one reason he was not raped by his captors during 54 hellish days in captivity.
“My wife was outside the room with the children,” freed hostage Mia Shem said in a newly published interview on Israeli television. “That was the only reason he didn't rape me.”
Shem, who has dual Israeli and French citizenship, said he was constantly monitored in a dark room by his torturers for most of his stay in Gaza.
She said she was starved, taunted by the terrorist's family and feared she would be killed at any moment.
“[I was] “We are locked in a dark room and are not allowed to speak, see, be heard or hide,” Shem told Israel's Channel 13. “Terrorists are staring at you 24/7, raping you with their eyes.
“I'm afraid I'll be raped, I'm afraid I'll die,” Shem said, breaking into tears at times as she recounted her ordeal. “His wife didn't like me and him being in the same room. I like the female-to-female hugs so we can open up a little bit.
Israel Channel 13 News (via Reuters)
“That's all you had there. But she was so mean and had such a mean look in her eyes.”
Shem was one of more than 200 Israelis taken hostage in a raid by Hamas militants on October 7, which killed more than 1,200 people.
While she was attending the Nova Music Festival near the border with the Gaza Strip, violent terrorists invaded and chased young Israeli festival-goers. The 21-year-old was shot in the arm during the break-in.
Shem said she tried to flee but the terrorists opened fire on her car and set it on fire, leaving her with only two options at the time.
“It was a split-second decision to stay there and burn to death or go with him,” she said.
She was dragged into a pickup truck and taken to Gaza, where her injured arm was placed in a makeshift splint. She was then taken to a Palestinian home and held captive.
She said in a television interview that Israeli bombs from Jewish state counterattacks sometimes rattled the house and at one point broke windows.
“I thought, 'If only I hadn't died on the 7th.'” [of October] I'm ready to die,'' Shem said, but added, “I trusted the military.''
In November, she was one of the hostages freed during a brief ceasefire, but said she still bears the scars of the nightmare and the contempt for those who took her freedom.
“It was important to me to tell the truth about the nature of the people living in Gaza, who they really are, and what I experienced there,” she said in an interview.
“What's important to you for the world to understand is that I went through the Holocaust,” Shem added. “Everyone there is a terrorist.”
with post wire.
