In the brief clip, a French-Israeli woman, Mia Schem, 21, can be seen lying on a bed while an unseen person bands her right arm, where a long fresh scar can be seen. She is being held hostage by Hamas extremists in the Gaza Strip. Hamas’s Monday release of a video from within the enclave is the first time any of the dozens of captives has been seen since they were taken.
Schem says she was injured and brought to Gaza, and she begs to be returned to her family while speaking into the camera. She is pale but is sitting up straight with her head held high.
There is a loud rumbling in the distance while she continues speaking.
Schem’s mother, Keren Scharf Schem, made an emotional plea to the government and world leaders in a press conference on Tuesday in Tel Aviv. She said, holding up a photo of her daughter, “I am begging the world to bring my baby back home, she only went to a festival party to have some fun and now she is in Gaza and she is not the only one.”
Scharf Schem stated that until Monday, all she knew about her daughter was that she might have been taken away and she had no idea if she was alive or dead.
“I saw she is alive, I saw that she was… I heard before rumors that she was shot in the shoulder or in the leg so I can see she was shot in her shoulder, I see she had an operation, she looks very terrified, she looks like she is in big pain, and I can see that she says what they tell her to say,” she told reporters, urging everyone to “stop this terror” and bring her daughter back home along with other hostages.
On Monday, Schem’s mother told CNN that she had faith in her daughter’s chances of survival because of her tenacity. “She’s very, very strong. That’s why we all believed in our hearts that she is alive, because we knew that she will never give up.”
It is unclear when or where the video of Schem was taken, or what her current condition is.
The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) said in a statement that they have been in contact with Schem’s family since last Thursday, when they learned of her abduction.
Speaking to CNN on Tuesday, IDF Spokesperson Maj. Libby Weiss said the video’s release was “another way by Hamas to wage a psychological war” on Israeli civilians.
Monday morning, Israeli military officials said that at least 199 people were being held hostage in the Gaza Strip. The IDF has said it is utiliSing “all intelligence and operational means to return the abductees” and that “Hamas is trying to present itself as a humanitarian organization while acting as a hideous terrorist organization responsible for killing and kidnapping infants, women, children, and the elderly.”
But Abu Obaida reported that 22 hostages, including an Israeli artist, had been slain in Israeli bombings on Saturday alone in Gaza. This has not been confirmed, however.
Following a terror attack initiated by Hamas militants on Saturday, which has claimed the lives of at least 1,400 individuals to date, Schem was abducted from the Nova festival in close proximity to the Gaza Strip.
An IDF report indicates that at least 260 bodies were discovered at the festival site.
In a message sent at 7:17 a.m. on Saturday, Scharf Schem said her daughter had texted a friend who was also at the festival, saying, “They are shooting at us please come save us.”
Scharf Schem said that Mia was a caring sister and “her best friend,” calling her daughter the “heart of the family.”
“Mia if you can see us, we want to tell you from all the family and all the people in Israel,” Schem’s brother Eli Schem told CNN. “We’re waiting for you, we love you, and we are going to do anything to bring you back home.”
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