Mia Schem, who was released as part of the hostage deal with Hamas in November 2023, spoke about what she went through in Gaza at a ceremony held by the Israeli consulate in New York to mark one year since the Hebrew date of the massacre.
"They put me in a cage, without air, without light," Mia recounted. "In that cage, only five feet high, I met five other young women. Each had their own brutal kidnapping story. We spent five days in this dark cage, with two armed guards changing shifts every 12 hours. I tried to encourage them, promising that we would be out soon. We were wounded and shocked by what had happened.
"Just a few weeks earlier, we were innocent girls. On the fifth day, they took me out. I managed to hug the girls and promised them that they would be released tomorrow and that we would meet again in our country and pick up the pieces," she continued.
In an interview with Channel 13 News a few months ago she stated: "It's important to me that people understand that I went through a Holocaust and that everyone there is a terrorist. They are families under Hamas. In retrospect, I suddenly realized that I was with a family, and suddenly I began to ask myself questions: Why am I in a family's home? Why are there children here? Why is there a woman here?"
She also shared that she hadn't eaten for days: "The terrorist's wife didn't like her husband watching over me, so she would come into the room, bring him food and none for me. Sometimes I didn't eat for two or three days straight. I also couldn't sleep at night, I didn't sleep for 54 days. How can you sleep when a terrorist examines you?"
Mia was the first hostage to appear in Hamas' psychological terror videos from Gaza. She returned to Israel on November 30 after 54 days in captivity.
