A 21-year-old French-Israeli tattoo artist shared her harrowing experience of being abducted and held captive by Hamas terrorists for 54 days.
The young woman, identified as Scheme who holds dual Israeli and French citizenship, revealed details about her captivity, expressing her belief that a single factor spared her from further horrors.
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During her ordeal, Scheme was confined to a dark room, subjected to constant surveillance by her captor. The family taunted and starved her, creating an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty.
“His wife was outside the room with the children,” Scheme told Channel 13. “That was the only reason he didn’t rape me.”
Held near the Gaza Strip, she feared death and endured the impact of Israeli counter-offensives, with bombs shaking the Palestinian home where she was kept.
“[I was] closed in a dark room, not allowed to talk, not allowed to be seen, to be heard, hidden,” Scheme added. “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. 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.
“That’s all you had there. But she was so mean, she had such mean eyes.”
Captured at a festival
Scheme‘s traumatic journey began during the violent attack on the Nova music festival, attended by young Israeli festival-goers.
Shot in the arm during the assault, she attempted to escape, only to have her car fired upon and set ablaze by the terrorists. Forced onto a pickup truck, she was transported into Gaza, where makeshift medical treatment was provided for her wounded arm.
Despite enduring the horrors of captivity, Scheme survived and was among the hostages released during a brief cease-fire in November.