The nightmare is over. In joy and tears on Thursday evening, the parents of French-Israeli Mia Schem, freed after she was kidnapped on October 7 by Hamas during the Palestinian Islamist movement's bloody attack on southern Israel, were finally able to find the young woman. Mia Schem, 21, was abducted from the Tribe of Nova music festival in the Negev desert, where 364 people were killed on 7 October and many more were abducted and taken by assailants to the Gaza Strip.
On Thursday, she was released and handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) before being handed over to the Israeli army and brought back to Israeli territory. And it was in the early evening that Mia Schem was finally able to reunite with her mother and brother at the Hatzerim base before the young woman was hospitalized at Sheba Hospital in Tel Aviv. There, she underwent rigorous medical examinations after more than seven weeks in captivity.
"I didn't know if she was alive or dead"
A truce between Hamas and Israel, which began on November 24 and was extended again into the night, in extremis, is accompanied by a daily exchange of hostages in Gaza for three times as many Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails. When his daughter's release was announced, David Shem expressed his deep emotion.
Read also'Bring her back alive': the plea of the family of Mia, 21, hostage who appeared in a Hamas video
"The army called me, I almost had a heart attack," he told Israel's Channel 12 television. "I'm not going to leave her for a long time," he said, calling it "the happiest day" of his life. In a video circulating on social media, his mother Keren bursts into tears when she learns of her release and imminent return to her loved ones. "She's coming home," she said between sobs but with a broad smile to a caller on the phone.
Mia Shem appeared on October 16 in a video released by Hamas, lying down and receiving treatment on her arm. Until then, "I didn't know if she was alive or dead. There was a rumor that she had been injured in the shoulder or leg. She was injured in the hand. She underwent surgery. She looks terrified. She says what she's told. I'm very worried about her," her mother said at the time.
Here are the moving images of this reunion.
The emotion of Mia Schem and her family
Mia Schem in her brother's arms
The emotion of Mia Schem's mother
The Israeli army helicopter that dropped off the French-Israeli hostage
AFP or licensors
Mia Schem getting out of the helicopter
AFP or licensors
Mia's face had become one of the symbols of Israeli hostages
Mia Schem's family has been relentless in their efforts
AFP or licensors
Some 240 people were taken hostage in the Oct. 7 attack, which killed about 1200,15 people, according to Israeli authorities. More than 000,<> people have been killed, according to the Hamas government, in Israel's retaliatory airstrikes on Gaza until the current truce.