a music festival where at least 260 people were killed<\/a>, speaking directly to the camera in Hebrew.<\/p>\n\u201cAt the moment I am in Gaza,\u201d Ms. Schem says in a solemn, clipped voice. She says that she is being looked after and that her arm was operated on for three hours at a hospital. The video ends with her plea to be returned to Israel.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just ask that I am returned as fast as possible to my family, to my parents, and to my siblings,\u201d she says. \u201cPlease get us out of here as quickly as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Israeli military issued a statement after the video was released that said Hamas was \u201ctrying to portray itself as a humane organization, while it is a murderous terrorist organization responsible for the murder and abduction of babies, women, children and elderly.\u201d<\/p>\n
A friend of the Schem family said the family had seen the clip and confirmed Ms. Schem\u2019s identity. The friend requested anonymity, citing fears of harassment. The family name can also be transliterated as Shem.<\/p>\n
According to an analysis by The New York Times, metadata contained within the video file indicates that some of the footage was filmed at least six days ago.<\/p>\n
Israeli officials said on Monday that 199 people were being held captive by Hamas \u2014 about 50 more than previously known \u2014 in the wake of the attack, which left more than 1,400 victims dead. Israel has responded with heavy airstrikes on Gaza, the Palestinian enclave controlled by Hamas, and threats of a ground invasion. Hamas has claimed that at least some captives have been killed in the strikes, a claim impossible to independently verify.<\/p>\n
Ms. Schem\u2019s mother, Keren Schem, said last week that she had last spoken to her on Oct. 6, the day before the attack. The family had gathered at their home in a small town outside of Tel Aviv to celebrate the end of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe called me to say she was going to a party down south,\u201d Keren Schem said. \u201cI asked her where, and she said she wasn\u2019t sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
The next morning, just after 7 a.m., Keren Schem\u2019s phone started buzzing with news of the attack, a series of raids on the communities closest to the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n
She tried, frantically, to reach her daughter but her calls went unanswered.<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t stop calling,\u201d Keren Schem said. \u201cI kept telling myself, it\u2019s OK, it was a party with thousands of people. What are the chances my daughter was hurt? I was trying to be rational, but I had no idea of the scale of the attack. I couldn\u2019t have guessed it was a massacre.\u201d<\/p>\n
She eventually heard from one of the organizers of the party, a friend of her daughter\u2019s, that Mia had sent a text message at 7:17 a.m.: \u201cThey are shooting at us, come save us.\u201d<\/p>\n
What happened after that isn\u2019t clear. Keren Schem said one person who was at the show described having <\/span>seen her daughter walking toward a kibbutz nearby. Another told her she had been spotted in a car that a Hamas gunman sprayed with bullets.<\/p>\nKeren Schem said she joined two WhatsApp groups of families and friends with missing loved ones from the music festival \u2014 only to see messages from people claiming to be affiliated with Hamas, threatening to harm her daughter.<\/p>\n
And her sister, separately, put her phone number online, she said, but \u201chad someone call her in Arabic, yelling. Now we don\u2019t answer any phone calls from numbers we don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nadav Gavrielov contributed reporting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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