Mia Shem, a 23-year-old French-Israeli woman who was held hostage by Hamas in Gaza last year, has alleged that she was drugged and raped in her own home by a well-known personal trainer following her release. The disturbing claim, made in an emotional interview on Israel’s Channel 12, has sparked widespread public outrage and reignited debates around victim protection and post-trauma care.
Shem, who was captured during the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on the Nova music festival, described how what was supposed to be a safe haven became the site of a new trauma just months after her release in a hostage exchange deal. “Before my captivity, inside captivity — and it happened after the captivity, at my home, in the place meant to be safest for me,” she said. “I came to tell the story as it is, which is that I was abused.”
The suspect, a prominent fitness coach and social media influencer in his 30s, was arrested in March in connection with the alleged assault but later released due to insufficient evidence. He reportedly has several high-profile clients, including a former Israeli prime minister. While he denies the allegations of rape, Channel 12 reports that he admitted to entering Shem’s dressing room multiple times while she was changing.
Shem said she had trained at his Tel Aviv fitness studio three times before the alleged attack and that the trainer had contacted her with promises of a connection to a Hollywood film producer interested in her story. She agreed to meet him at her home, but says the producer never arrived. “Since he walked in, I don’t remember. I don’t remember anything,” she recounted, adding that she later experienced flashbacks that made her realize she had been drugged and assaulted. “My body remembers. My body felt it. My body knows I went through something.”
The trauma, Shem said, has left her in a worse state than her captivity. “Even in captivity, when I was hurt, I got through that,” she said. “The last thing I needed was an incident like this. I need a moment of peace to process my life for a second — I haven’t started processing my captivity yet.”
Her mother, Keren Shem, spoke tearfully about her daughter’s condition since the incident. “She couldn’t stop crying. She was bent over and crying uncontrollably. I’ve been in difficult situations with her, but this was a complete breakdown.”
Shem was among the first hostages seen alive after the October 7 attack, when Hamas released a “proof of life” video showing her with a bandaged arm. During her captivity, she said she was inappropriately touched by a militant, who stopped after she screamed.
Since her release, Shem has largely stayed out of the public eye, aside from a brief appearance at Sir Elton John’s Oscar party last year. She now says she is working on a book and had hoped to share her story through a film project — a hope that turned into a new nightmare.
Israeli police say the investigation is ongoing.
