Mother pleads for daughter’s release after Hamas video

The mother of Mia Shem, seized by Hamas gunmen and held hostage in Gaza, has appealed for her immediate release along with at least 198 other hostages.

“I’m begging the world to bring my baby back home,” Keren Shem told reporters in Tel Aviv, holding up a picture of her French-Israeli daughter.

The Islamist militant group released a video on Monday night, in which Mia Shem appeared with a wounded arm.

“She only went… to a festival party to have some fun,” her mother said.

“And now she’s in Gaza and she’s not the only one.”

The Hamas hostage video is the first of its kind to be aired since they abducted Israelis, dual nationals and foreign citizens on Israeli soil on 7 October. Hamas’s armed wing said in a separate video that the hostages were “our guests”, who would be freed when circumstances allowed.

Mia Shem, 21, is shown being treated for her injury and asking in Hebrew to be returned as quickly as possible to her family.

The French foreign ministry condemned the video as vile and President Emmanuel Macron demanded Mia Shem’s immediate release: “It is an ignominy to take innocent people hostage and put them on show in this odious way.”

France has said it is working to secure the release of all 13 hostages with French nationality. Another 19 French citizens were among the 1,400 people killed when Hamas gunmen attacked more than 20 Israeli communities as well as the Tribe of Nova music festival.

Israel’s military denounced the Hamas video as “psychological terror against Israeli citizens”, adding that it was in constant touch with the young woman’s family. Hamas had murdered and abducted babies, women, children and the elderly and was now “trying to portray itself as a humane organisation”, it added.

Keren Shem told a press conference on Tuesday that “babies, children and old people, Holocaust survivors” had been kidnapped.

“This is a crime against humanity and we should all gather and stop this terror, and bring everybody back home.”

Israel’s military says at least 199 hostages are now thought to have been seized by Hamas, which claims to have hidden them in “safe places and tunnels”. Israeli medical officials who are in touch with their families have said many have medical conditions requiring immediate access to life-saving medicines.

Citizens from a number of countries are being held, including up to 10 from the UK, and Foreign Office Minister Andrew Mitchell has said the government is doing all it can to get them back as soon as possible.

However, one senior Hamas figure has insisted that “foreign prisoners” cannot be freed because of the Israeli military’s continuing air strikes on the Gaza Strip.

Hamas’s military wing said on Monday that 22 hostages have been killed in the bombardment, but there has been no independent confirmation of that.