A former Hamas hostage has criticized the United Nations and other advocacy groups for inaction towards the plight of hostages still in Gaza. During an address outside the United Nations Security Council in New York on 6 November, Mia Shem expressed frustration at what she described as the absence of the United Nations in seeking assistance for those held captive.
“No humanitarian agency saw me or treated me. Where was the Red Cross? Where was the UN demanding that they get access to us?” said Mia Shem, who was released in November 2023.
The 22-year-old Israeli-French dual citizen detailed her harrowing experience of isolation, lack of medical treatment and intimidation by armed captors. He said, “I was kept alone for 50 days without any treatment due to unbearable pain in my hand. A Hamas terrorist was sitting in front of me in a dark room with a gun pointed at my head. Even though my hand was damaged, no humanitarian agency saw me or treated me.
Shem also revealed how after her abduction she was placed in a Palestinian home, where she endured harassment from an adult and taunts from a child. Speaking to Channel 12, he said, “There are no innocent people in Gaza, not even one.”
Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon also sharply criticized the UN’s “complete moral failure” at the press conference. He said the UN’s silence on the issue was “inexcusable”.
According to a report in the New York Post, while the UN Security Council has issued statements urging Hamas to release Israeli hostages, no specific actions or sanctions have been proposed to enforce these demands.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has said that, as a neutral humanitarian body, it cannot take a strong public stance, although it has expressed a willingness to meet with Israeli detainees.
More than 43,000 Palestinians – the majority of whom are children and women – have been killed in more than a year of Israeli offensive on Gaza. Almost the entire population of Gaza has been internally displaced, with people forced to move from one place to another as Israeli rockets continue to target neighborhoods, hospitals and even temporary shelter camps. Are.
The Benjamin Netanyahu government’s war in Gaza came as retaliation for a Hamas attack on a music festival and parts of southern Israel on October 7. At least 1,200 people were killed in the attack and Hamas took another 254 hostage.
