From Hamas kidnap hell to Oscars glamour: Mia Schem attends the Elton John awards in an elegant white dress and still wearing bandages on her arm, three months after Israeli hostage was freed from Gaza captivity

Mia Schem, the French-Israeli reveler released by Hamas after being taken hostage in the October 7 attacks, was spotted at Elton John’s Oscars party in Los Angeles last night.

21-year-old Schem, who still wears a thick black cast after being shot in the arm by Hamas attackers, was snapped wearing a long white dress adorned with a yellow rhinestone pin, designed to raise awareness for Israeli hostages still held in Gaza.

The tattoo artist spent 54 days as a prisoner in the Palestinian enclave after being shot and held hostage during the Nova Festival massacre in southern Israel on October 7, before eventually being released as part of a ceasefire and exchange on November 30.

Schem is in the US as part of a tour to share her experiences in Hamas captivity and campaign for the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza.

She arrived in the US last week to attend President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address, before traveling to LA to attend the annual 32nd Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Awards Viewing Party.

Mia Schem attends the Elton John AIDS Foundation’s 32nd Annual Academy Awards Viewing Party on March 10, 2024 in West Hollywood, California

Mia Schem, freed Israeli hostage kidnapped by Hamas, attends President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address during a joint session of Congress in the House chamber of the U.S. Capitol on March 7, 2024

Mia Schem (21), who was kidnapped from the Nova party in Reim on October 7, was injured and returned to Israel on November 30, is seen at home

In the first official evidence of the life of an Israeli hostage, Hamas released a video of Schem after she underwent surgery on her arm

Mia Schem is seen in a van next to fellow Israeli prisoner Amit Soussana shortly before their release

Schem made headlines as one of the first Israeli prisoners to be seen on video from Gaza.

She was seen in grainy video footage with a bloody bandage covering her arm after being operated on in captivity, reportedly by a vet.

In the clip, Schem said in Hebrew that “everything is fine,” that she was receiving medical treatment for her injuries, and pleaded for her release.

“Hi, I’m Mia Schem, 21 years old from Shoham,” she said in the first clip. ‘I am currently in Gaza. I seriously injured my hand. I had surgery on my arm in the hospital for three hours.

“They are taking care of me, giving me medicine, everything is fine,” she was heard saying at the time.

Before she was released, she had to film another video, in which she said of her time in captivity: “People very good, very kind to me… Food is good and the friendliness and everything is good.”

The report was flagged for contradicting the accounts of other hostages who reportedly lost as much as 10kg in less than two months of captivity, due to poor nutrition and improper medical care.

After her release, Schem quickly changed her tune and spoke out against Hamas and its treatment of hostages.

Speaking to the Israeli Channel 13 days after regaining her freedom, Schem said it was “important for me to convey the truth about the nature of the people living in Gaza, who they really are and what I experienced there’.

“I lived through a holocaust,” she said. ‘Everyone there is a terrorist. I felt like an animal in a zoo.’

Mia Schem continues to tell the horrors she experienced as a hostage of Hamas in Gaza

Schem walks to the House of Representatives chamber before President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address at the U.S. Capitol, Thursday, March 7, 2024, in Washington

Mia Schem is seen in footage dancing and laughing at a music festival before her kidnapping

Following her release from captivity, Schem’s caretakers expressed concerns that she had received inappropriate treatment.

“She is thin and weak,” Schem’s aunt Vivian Hadar told the media. ‘A vet operated on her arm. She didn’t get any physical therapy.”

She was captured along with her friend Elia Toledano, 27, by Hamas gunmen at the Nova music festival.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum described Schem as “a young woman with an old soul” who studied tattooing and worked at a tattoo parlor before her kidnapping.

About 240 hostages were brought into Gaza from southern Israel when Hamas launched its sudden attack on October 7.

The attack also killed more than 1,200 people as armed gunmen attacked residential kibbutzim and the Nova music festival near Re’im.

Hamas released more than 100 hostages in late November during a weeklong ceasefire, most of which agreed to it as part of an agreement with Israel.

By December 1, a total of 110 hostages had been released, only women and children. A number of people still in captivity have been reported dead in the weeks since.

Few civilians returning from Gaza have given detailed accounts of their time as hostages.