Two more female Israeli hostages were freed Thursday after walking the now-customary gauntlet of jeering Hamas supporters in Gaza.
One of them, Mia (or Maya) Shem (or Schem), 21, was wounded in the Hamas terror attack on the Supernova music festival on October 7 before being taken hostage. She was forced to appear in the first Hamas propaganda video, released less than a week after the attack, and appeared to have been given some sort of medical treatment for her injury, though details were unknown.
She greeted her family at Hatzerim Air Base in Israel, shortly after her arrival. Her right arm was immobile, in a brace or sling.
Mia Shem (or, alternatively, Maya Schem) being embraced by her family upon her release from Hamas custody, Hatzerim Air Base, Israel, November 30, 2023. Her right arm was wounded in the Oct. 7 attack and appears immobile. (Courtesy Government Press Office)
Update: Her arm was reportedly treated in Gaza by a veterinarian, not an actual doctor licensed to treat human beings.
Shem has dual French and Israeli citizenship. She, like other hostages, was forced to walk through a crowd of Hamas supporters on her way to the waiting Red Cross van in Gaza City’s Palestine Square. The Red Cross, which has failed to visit or aid the hostages, has become a regular participant in the spectacle of humiliating Israeli hostages upon their release.
The other hostage released Thursday was Amit Soussana, age 40. Video of her transfer was not immediately available, though a source indicated it took place in the same place as that of Mia Shem.
As Breitbart News reported, Israel and Hamas agreed to extend their truce into a seventh day, with Hamas agreeing to release eight Israeli and two Russian-Israeli hostages, as well as the bodies of three dead Israeli hostages. The identities of the dead are unknown.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who has often equivocated on the issue of Israeli responses to Palestinian terror, welcomed Shem’s release, as noted by the Times of Israel, calling it a “great joy.”
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.