This screenshot taken from a social media video published on October 3 shows Fauzia Sid, a Yazidi woman kidnapped by Islamic State in Iraq and released from Gaza this week, meeting relatives at an unknown location. You can see how it is.
David Saranga X, via Reuters
The Israeli military announced Thursday that a “complex operation” involving the United States and Israel rescued a 21-year-old Yazidi woman from the Gaza Strip who had been trafficked by the Islamic State group and held captive by Hamas for more than a decade. . other international actors.
The woman, Fauzia Amin Sid, told CNN that she was abducted by ISIS as a child when the group captured the northern Iraqi city of Sinjar in August 2014. As CNN reported, ISIS executed Yazidi men and boys and committed crimes such as sexual violence and rape against women and girls.
Sydow said she was trafficked to various locations in several countries over the next few years.
“We ended up in the al-Hol camp (in Syria) before being smuggled into Idlib in 2019, and from there we headed to Turkey. “He arranged for me to get a passport in Turkey,” she said.
She told CNN that she lived in Rafah in southern Gaza for a year, from the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023 until she was rescued by an NGO on Tuesday, calling life “unbearable.”
“Hamas constantly harassed me because of my Yazidi background and my contact with my family, and they even formatted my phone during their investigation,” she said.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced Thursday that “in a complex operation coordinated between Israel, the United States, and other international actors, she was recently rescued from the Gaza Strip in a secret mission through the Kerem Shalom crossing.” did.
“Once she entered Israel, she crossed the Allenby Bridge to Jordan and from there returned to her family in Iraq.”
The IDF said the prisoner was killed “possibly during an IDF attack” in Gaza and that she was able to escape to a safe house.
In an interview with CNN, Fauzia did not mention the strike, only saying that he was rescued by an NGO in Rafah but could not remember his name. “From there American authorities took me and helped me return to Baghdad,” she said.
The United States and Iraq confirmed that they had partnered to assist in the evacuation of Sid from Gaza.
“The Iraqi government contacted us and informed us of the fact that she had escaped, that she was alive, and that she wanted to return to her family,” the country’s spokesman, Matthew Miller, said Thursday. .
“The Iraqi government has asked us to do everything we can to get her out of Gaza and bring her home. So over the past few weeks, we have worked with many partners in the region to get her out of Gaza. We cooperated,” Miller said.
Iraq’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that Mr. Siddow was released after more than four months of efforts by Iraqi government agencies in cooperation with U.S. and Jordanian authorities.
Israeli diplomat David Saranga released a video of Sydow being reunited with his family. Saranga said her captors were “Palestinian Hamas/ISIS members.”
“Her story is a reminder of the brutality to which Yazidi children have no choice,” Saranga wrote.
