Hamas hostage Mia Schem on how she survived captivity — and freedom — after October 7

Mia Schem became one of the most recognizable faces of the October 7 hostage crisis after she was the first hostage shown in a Hamas video that received international attention. During the 2023 terror attack on Israel, the then 21-year-old Schem, and her friend Elia Toledano, had hurriedly driven away from the Nova music festival when the “red alert” sirens rang out, as rockets from Gaza flew above. They thought driving away would keep them from harm.

For Schem, a French-Israeli tattoo artist, the morning of terror remains agonizingly present.

After twenty minutes on the road, they came upon an ambush. “Bullets were flying over our heads,” she told attendees at a Toronto event on July 28 that was organized by Tribe of Nova Canada.

“Then they shot at us. The car lost control, flipped over and stopped. The doors were locked. We realized we couldn’t get out, so we got out from the windows. The moment I landed on the ground, I was shot at point blank range.”

She painted the vivid picture of the scene: of pieces of her right hand “flying into the air,” of burning cars, scattered bodies, parts of bodies, and the split-second decision that forced her to “walk toward the terrorists,” because she believed it was her only chance to survive. “I was dragged by my hair into a truck with seven Hamas monsters,” she said at the talk.

Schem was initially held in a Gaza home, and later moved into Hamas’s tunnel system and kept in a small cage. She recalled, “they treated me like an animal. They didn’t give me any medicine, any treatment, nothing.” She was held for 55 days, and released Nov. 30, 2023. Toledano’s body returned to Israel Dec. 15, 2023.

In November 2024, when there were still about a hundred hostages held in Gaza, she addressed the United Nations Security Council, telling them that Nova was “a bloodbath,” where “hundreds of young men and women were shot, dismembered, and brutally kidnapped.”

She asked: “What good are your resolutions, your debates, your empty promises, if the sick, elderly, mothers and their children are left to rot in the terror tunnels?” Since her return home, and multiple surgeries, Schem has said that her story is “a story about choosing to find light, even in the darkest moments,” she told the Toronto crowd. “I choose gratitude. Gratitude for the simple things. For waking up every morning. For breathing. For being able to hug my family. To be with my family.”

Dave Gordon spoke to Schem exclusively for National Post. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.

What feels most important for people to understand about your experience?

The most important thing I want people to understand is captivity didn’t end the day I came home. My body came back, but part of my heart and soul is still there. Every day I make the choice to get up and keep going, to live. I don’t want people to remember me only as a hostage. I want them to remember me as a woman who chose life after everything I went through.

What has helped you most in your recovery?

My family and friends have been my biggest source of support, but my faith has also given me strength during captivity. Hope kept me alive, and it still does today. Sharing my story around the world gives meaning and purpose to my pain. If my testimony can touch even one person, then I know it matters.

What do you wish people asked you more often?

I wish people would ask me how I was before October 7. Many people know me, know my story, but they don’t really know me. I was a young woman with dreams. I loved living a normal life. I want people to see me, not just what happened to me.

What gives you hope now?

People give me hope. I meet so many kind people around the world who support us, pray for us, and have not forgotten the hostages. They remind me that there is still so much good in the world. I also believe that no matter how dark life gets, you can always choose life.

You sang a Jewish song during your captivity. How did captivity change the way you think about God or Israel?

During captivity, I had nothing to hold on to except my faith. Every day, I sang Shir Lamaalot (A Song of Ascents) out, and reminded myself that I was not alone; that one day I would come home. Since returning, my connection to God and to Israel became much stronger. I realized how precious our lives are, for us, and how important it is for us to stay united, even when we disagree.

What has been the hardest part of returning to your ordinary life?

The hardest part is realizing that life goes on, but I am not the same person that I was before. Trauma does not disappear overnight. I’m still learning how to live again, how to feel joy without guilt, and how to build the future for myself.

What message do you hope non-Jews take from your experience?

I hope people understand what my story is. That my story is not only an Israeli story or Jewish story. It is a human story. Terrorism doesn’t choose a religion, and nationality, or skin colour. When we stay silent in the face of hatred and violence, everyone loses. I hope people will choose the trust, choose compassion, and the courage to stand with innocent people, and most of all, I want them to remember that there is always hope, even in the darkest place. You can choose light and choose life.