Mia Schem recounts October 7 Hamas attack and 55‑day captivity

Mia Schem, a 21‑year‑old French‑Israeli, was attending the Nova music festival near the Israel‑Gaza border on 7 October 2023 when rockets were launched. During the ensuing assault she was shot in the arm by a Hamas militant and taken hostage into the Gaza Strip, becoming one of the first 251 people captured.

Schem spent 55 days in captivity before being released during a brief truce between Israel and Hamas. In interviews she described how she and her friend Elia Toledano fled the festival, how the direction they chose to drive determined their survival, and that she believed up to 40 gunmen were firing at fleeing cars. She later appeared in a Hamas‑released video showing her early days of captivity.

Her account adds a personal perspective to the broader Oct 7 attack that killed 378 festival attendees and triggered the ongoing Israel‑Gaza conflict.