Israeli hostage Mia Shem ‘raped in her own home after release’

Mia Shem’s biggest fear during her captivity was being raped by her captors; but after her return home she was drugged and sexually attacked by a well-known personal trainer.

Mia Shem in a video released by Hamas in October 2023. Picture; AFP.

One of the Israeli hostages taken by Hamas has alleged that after her return home she was drugged and raped by a well-known personal trainer.

Mia Shem, 23, told Israel’s main broadcaster, Channel 12, that the incident took place at her home. “This was my biggest fear in life. Before captivity, during captivity – and it happened after the captivity, at my home, in the place meant to be safest for me,” she said.

“I came to tell the story as it is, which is that I was abused. I went through an incident last month that caused me to lock myself inside my house, to get into extreme mental states, and at the end of the day – I’m the one that was hurt,” she said.

The suspect, a social media influencer and personal trainer in his thirties who has not been named, was arrested in relation to the alleged incident in March. He is reported to have several celebrity clients, including a former prime minister, according to Channel 12.

Ms Shem had trained at his fitness studio in Tel Aviv, close to her home, three times before the alleged incident. He has denied the sexual assault, but according to reports has admitted to entering her dressing room several times while she was getting changed.

Israeli police have said that the man has been released, citing a lack of evidence. The investigation is continuing.

Mia Shem being handed over by Hamas to the Red Cross in Gaza City, on November 30, 2023. Picture: AFP.

The French-Israeli woman was 21 when she was kidnapped by Hamas while attending the Nova festival on 7 October 2023.

Ms Shem was captured by Hamas on October 7, 2023, at the Nova music festival on the Gaza border, where more than 300 people were killed as they partied in the early morning. After her release in a hostage deal in November that year, she said she had been touched inappropriately by a militant, who stopped after she screamed.

The French-Israeli citizen, who was 21 when she was kidnapped, was the first hostage seen alive after the attack in a “proof of life” video released by Hamas that showed her with a bandaged arm after improvised surgery.

Ms Shem rarely gives interviews and was last photographed in public at Sir Elton John’s Oscar party last year.

She said she had been approached by the trainer, who offered to set her up with a Hollywood film producer to tell her story of being held captive. “I’m writing a book, and because of what I went through there are a lot of people who want to take my story and make something of it, so it sounded completely normal,” she said, adding that the trainer then showed up without the producer.

“Since he walked in, I don’t remember. I don’t remember anything,” she said, alleging that she realised she had been drugged after experiencing flashbacks of the assault. “My body remembers. My body felt it. My body knows I went through something.

“Even in captivity, when I was hurt, I got through that. The last thing I needed was an incident like this. I need a moment of peace to process my life for a second – I haven’t started processing my captivity yet.”

Her mother, Keren Shem, said in an interview: “When we met after the incident, she couldn’t stop crying. She was bent over and crying uncontrollably. I’ve been in difficult situations with her, I know my daughter, but here she was in some kind of complete breakdown. My daughter came back from captivity in a terrible physical and mental state, but not like she is now.”

The Times