A Palestinian veterinarian performed surgery on an Israeli-French hostage while she was held captive by Hamas, her aunt says.
“She was traumatized,” Vivian Hadar said after 21-year-old niece Mia Shem’s release Thursday night, according to the Jerusalem Post.
“She’s thin, she’s weak,” Hadar said of Shem, noting, “A veterinarian operated on her arm; she did physical therapy for herself.
“She knew she needed to give herself hand massages,” Hadar explained of her kin, adding that Shem’s hand is still “very sore.”
While the young woman was held captive, the Palestinian terrorists released a video of her being treated for a wound on her right arm as someone off-camera wrapped her elbow in a bandage.
Shem, who was kidnapped from the Tribe of Nova music festival near the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, said in the 60-second clip that she was injured and taken across the border, where she underwent a three-hour surgery to treat undisclosed injuries.
“They are taking care of me, giving me medicine, everything is fine,” Shem said in the video.
“I only ask that they bring me home as soon as possible to my parents, to my siblings. Get me out of here as soon as possible. Please,” she said.
Soon after the footage emerged, Shem’s family held a press conference in Tel Aviv begging for their loved one’s safe return.
“I saw she is alive. … 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,” her mom told reporters.
“I ask world leaders that my daughter be returned to us in the state that she is today, as well as the other hostages,” the mother added as she held up a photo of her daughter.
“I am begging the world to return my baby to me. It is a crime against humanity. All together we need to stop this terror.”
Speaking to reporters after Shem’s release Thursday night, Hadar said that waiting for her niece to be released was “like Russian Roulette.
“We kept wanting to know if she was on the list or not,” Hadar explained.
“Yesterday, we thought she was on the list, and they said ‘no,’ and it completely paralyzed me.”
The aunt said she is not asking Shem much about what she endured in her nearly 50 days in captivity “because when we started asking, we saw that it was difficult for her.
“We are glad that she is with us,” Hadar said, but “it is difficult to see her in this situation.
“It’s not an easy time,” she said. “It’s not easy what she went through, and we’re looking forward.
“What the families of the hostages are going through is not normal,” she added. “This must not happen. All the hostages must be returned.”
A temporary cease-fire between Israel and Hamas ended Friday morning as the Jewish nation blamed the terror group for violating the truce by launching rockets toward Israeli territory before the agreement expired.
In response, moments after the cease-fire ended, the Israeli military resumed its attack in Gaza, launching airstrikes on the Palestinian territory for the first time since the pause in fighting began Nov. 24.