The 21-year-old woman has now been returned to her family in Iraq after a complex rescue operation involving Israel, the United States and Jordan.
A 21-year-old woman kidnapped by Islamic State fighters in Iraq in 2014 was freed from Gaza this week in a covert operation involving Iraq, Israel, Jordan and the United States.
Yazidis have a faith rooted in Zoroastrianism and live primarily in Iraq and Syria. They were targeted by ISIL in Iraq’s Sinjar region, where they witnessed nearly 10,000 people being killed and thousands of women being kidnapped, raped and abused as sex slaves in a matter of days.
The woman was taken at the age of 11 and later trafficked to Gaza.
Iraqi Foreign Minister’s Chief of Staff Shirwan Sinjari told Reuters on Thursday that the men were freed after more than four months of efforts, during which several attempts failed due to the difficult security situation caused by Israel’s war in Gaza. spoke.
Iraq’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs praised the cooperation between the United States and Jordan.
“The girl was handed over to her family this evening after returning to Iraq,” the ministry said in a statement Thursday, without mentioning Gaza or Israel.
Iraq and Israel have no diplomatic relations.
Iraqi authorities had been in contact with the woman for several months and passed information about her to U.S. authorities, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.
A State Department spokesperson said Tuesday that the United States “assisted the safe evacuation of a young Yazidi woman from Gaza so she could be reunited with her family in Iraq.”
A spokeswoman said she was trying to find a way to escape and return home because her captor in Gaza was recently killed.
U.S. defense officials said the U.S. military was not involved in the evacuation.
Spokesman Matthew Miller said the United States “worked with many partners in the region to remove her from Gaza and return her safely.”
The Israeli military also announced the rescue of the woman.
“She was recently rescued from the Gaza Strip in a secret mission through the Kerem Shalom (Karem Abu Salem) crossing,” the statement said.
“Once she entered Israel, she crossed the Allenby Bridge to Jordan and from there returned to her family in Iraq.”
Sinjali said the young woman is in good health but traumatized by her time in captivity and the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.
About 100,000 Yazidis fled to Europe, the United States, Australia and Canada after the 2014 ISIL genocide, according to the United Nations. He claimed that ISIL’s actions amounted to genocide.
