Mia Schem, the 21-year-old Israeli French tattoo artist who was freed by Hamas, attended Elton John’s party for the Oscars on Sunday night.
Schem, who still wears a cast after being shot in the arm during the Oct. 7 terrorist attack, was photographed at the annual 32nd Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Awards Viewing Party.
She wore an elegant white gown adorned with a yellow rhinestone pin to raise awareness for the Israelis still being held captive in Gaza, according to the Times of Israel.
The young woman arrived in the US last week along with at least 17 relatives of hostages to attend President Biden’s State of the Union address.
Schem, who was the guest of House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), underwent surgery after she was kidnapped during the Nova festival massacre.
She made headlines during her captivity when she was forced to appear in a Hamas propaganda video and praise her captors for treating her injured arm.
Before being released during a temporary cease-fire in November, she spent her days in Gaza under constant fear that she would be raped and killed by her captors.
She revealed in a recent interview on Israeli TV why she wasn’t raped.
“His wife was outside the room with the children,” Schem said, referring to her captor. “That was the only reason he didn’t rape me.”
But she added that she was starved and taunted by the terrorist’s family while wondering if she’d be killed at any moment.
“[I was] closed in a dark room, not allowed to talk, not allowed to be seen, to be heard, hidden,” Schem told IChannel 13. “There is a terrorist looking at you 24/7, looking, raping you with his eyes.
“There is fear of being raped, there is fear of dying,” she continued, at times bursting into tears while recounting the ordeal.
“His wife hated the fact that he and I were in the same room. You feel like you want a hug, you know, woman to woman, to break down a bit,” she said.
Schem was among more than 200 Israelis kidnapped during the sneak attack by the terrorists, who killed more than 1,200 people in the assault.
She was thrown onto a pickup truck and taken into Gaza, where she had a makeshift splint placed on her wounded arm, then taken to a Palestinian home and held captive until November.
