Former Hamas hostage Mia Shem has sharply criticized the United Nations and humanitarian groups, accusing them of neglecting the plight of hostages still held in Gaza. Speaking outside the United Nations Security Council in New York, the 22-year-old Israeli-French dual national recounted her ordeal and voiced frustration over the UN’s “complete absence” in securing humanitarian aid for those in captivity.
“For 50 days, I was isolated, enduring unbearable pain in my hand without any medical treatment. A Hamas militant sat across from me in a dark room with a gun pointed at my head,” Shem recounted. “Where was the Red Cross? Where was the UN, demanding access to us?” Shem’s harrowing experience underscores the challenges faced by hostages during her captivity in Gaza.
Shem shared that her captors subjected her to isolation and intimidation, and that she experienced verbal harassment from locals. “There are no innocents in Gaza, not even one,” she said, detailing the taunts she endured while held in a Palestinian home.
Israel’s UN Ambassador, Danny Danon, joined Shem’s address, condemning the UN’s response as a “complete moral failure” and urging greater action. While the UN Security Council has issued statements urging Hamas to release Israeli hostages, no concrete actions or sanctions have been proposed to enforce these demands, according to a report by the New York Post.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), for its part, expressed its desire to visit Israeli captives but noted it must maintain a neutral humanitarian stance, limiting its public statements on the issue.
The hostage crisis is part of a wider conflict in Gaza. Over 43,000 Palestinians, including a significant number of children and women, have been killed in Israeli airstrikes, and much of Gaza’s population has been displaced. Israeli forces escalated their military operations in response to an October 7 Hamas attack, which targeted a music festival and other areas in southern Israel, killing over 1,200 people and leading to the capture of 254 hostages.
As the crisis continues, calls for humanitarian access to hostages and aid for displaced civilians are intensifying, highlighting the complex and tragic human cost on both sides of the conflict.
Sources By Agencies