Hamas releases first video of a hostage taken to Gaza.
The short video clip shows Mia Schem lying on a bed, her right arm being bandaged by someone out of the frame. A long, fresh scar is clearly visible.
Schem, a 21-year-old French-Israeli woman, is being held hostage by the militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The video released by Hamas on Monday is the first footage of any of the dozens of people held in the enclave.
Speaking into the camera, Schem, who looks pale, but is sitting up straight with her head held high, says she was injured and taken to Gaza, then pleads to be returned to her family.
As she speaks, loud rumbling can be heard in the background.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday in Tel Aviv, Schem’s mother urged the government and world leaders to bring her daughter back home.
Holding a picture of her daughter, Keren Scharf Schem said: “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 said she did not know if her daughter was dead or alive until Monday and that all she knew is that she might have been kidnapped.
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.
Schem’s mother told CNN on Monday that she believed her daughter’s resilience would help her survive. “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.”
CNN cannot independently verify where and when the video of Schem was taken and what condition she is in at the moment.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that it had informed Schem’s family about her kidnapping last week and are keeping in touch with them at this time.