‘I am a prisoner in Gaza’: 21-year-old Mia Shem in video released by Hamas

A disturbing video of 21-year-old Mia Shem, who was kidnapped at a music festival by Hamas, has been making the rounds, with sincere pleas for her safe return to her family.

This disturbing video shows a young woman speaking straight to the camera in Hebrew. It is allegedly being distributed by the militant faction of Hamas, the al-Qassam Brigades. Mia Shem, an Israeli citizen from Shoham, was kidnapped by Hamas militants on October 7 while she was at the Supernova Music Festival in Kibbutz Re’im, which tragically claimed 260 lives.

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In the video, Mia could be seen saying, “I am a prisoner in Gaza and they treated me and performed a surgery on me that took 3 hours, and everything is fine, and I only ask that you return me home as soon as possible, return me to my family, please get us out of here as soon as possible.”

The video had some concerning visuals as bombings can be clearly heard in the background.

After confirming that Hamas did, in fact, kidnap Mia, the Israel Defense Forces are in contact with her family. Mia Shem, a 21-year-old resident of Shoham, Israel, is one of the 200–250 people who are believed to be being kept captive by Hamas in a number of secret sites across the Gaza Strip.

The IDF responded by tweeting, saying: “Mia was kidnapped by Hamas last week. Since then, Mia’s family has been notified by IDF officials, who maintain constant communication with them.

“They attempt to project a humanitarian image in the video that Hamas released. But in reality, they are a horrible terrorist group that has killed and kidnapped men, women, children, and even babies.”

Mia’s mother, Karen Shem, after knowing that she is alive in a TV interview stated, “Thank God, my girl is alive.” She was shown a video during the interview that was allegedly recorded by Hamas and showed her missing daughter seemingly getting care for an arm injury from someone off camera.