Mother of French-Israeli hostage urges world leaders to free daughter

The mother of French-Israeli woman Mia Shem, held hostage by Hamas militants in Gaza, urged world leaders Tuesday to free her daughter after the Islamists aired a video showing her in captivity.

"I ask world leaders that my daughter be returned to us in the state that she is today, as well as the other hostages," Keren Shem told a press conference in Tel Aviv.

She was speaking a day after Hamas broadcast a video showing her daughter receiving treatment for a wounded arm.

"I beg the world to return my baby to me," Shem said, after French President Emmanuel Macron demanded her immediate and unconditional release.

Shem said her daughter was at a rave party in the desert near the border, when she was abducted to Gaza during the deadly attack Hamas militants launched on Israel on October 7.

"Now she is in Gaza. She is not the only one. There are many adults, children, babies and Holocaust survivors," she said of other Israelis and foreigners held by militants.

"It is a crime against humanity. All together we need to stop this terror."

The Israeli military said it had confirmed the identities of 199 hostages taken to Gaza.

Israeli forces have carried out localised raids across the border during which they have located the bodies of some of those abducted, with the latest such operation taking place on Tuesday, an army spokesman said.

Shem said she had not known whether her daughter "was alive or dead" until Hamas released the video footage of her.

"There was a rumour saying that she was wounded in the shoulder or the leg. She was wounded in the hand. She was operated on," Shem said.

"She looks terrified. She says what they tell her to say. I'm really worried about her," Shem added.

dar-pa-jd-rsc/kir