A young Yazidi woman, abducted at the age of 11 by the Islamic State group in Iraq and later taken to Gaza, has finally been freed after more than a decade in captivity.
Officials from Israel, the US, and Iraq confirmed the successful rescue of the now 21-year-old.
“She was recently rescued in a secret mission from the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom crossing,” the military said in a statement. “Upon her entry into Israel, she continued to Jordan through the Allenby Bridge crossing and from there returned to her family in Iraq.”
The Iraqi foreign ministry confirmed the woman’s safe return, acknowledging the collaboration between the United States and Jordan after over four months of “efforts and follow-ups.”
“The girl was handed over to her family this (Thursday) evening after returning to Iraq,” the ministry stated, though no reference was made to Gaza or Israel.
The Yazidis, a religious minority primarily residing in Iraq and Syria, suffered severe persecution when Islamic State militants seized control of their homeland in Sinjar, northern Iraq, in 2014.
During this invasion, thousands of Yazidi men were massacred, and many women and girls were enslaved.
The Israeli military reported that Fawzia Amin Sido, the woman in question, had been held by a captor in Gaza, who was likely killed by an Israeli airstrike during the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. Ms. Sido seized the moment to escape to another location in Gaza.
Her liberation came through a carefully orchestrated “complex operation,” involving coordination between Israel, the United States, and other international actors.
Ms. Sido was ultimately transferred through Israel and Jordan before being reunited with her family in Iraq.
An Iraqi foreign ministry official, Silwan Sinjaree, revealed that efforts to free Ms. Sido had been underway for about four months, though previous attempts were thwarted due to the volatile security situation in Gaza.
Upon her return, Sinjaree noted that Ms. Sido was physically well, though emotionally scarred by her years of captivity and the harrowing conditions in Gaza.
A video shared by Canadian philanthropist Steve Maman captured the emotional reunion between Ms. Sido and her family in Sinjar, Iraq.
Maman, who played a key role in her rescue, posted on X, “I made a promise to Fawzia the Yazidi who was hostage of Hamas in Gaza that I would bring her back home to her mother in Sinjar… Our team reunited her moments ago with her mother and family in Sinjar.”
The Islamic State group, at the height of its power, controlled 88,000 square kilometers (34,000 square miles) spanning eastern Iraq to western Syria, subjugating nearly eight million people to its brutal regime.
In 2014, during their campaign in Sinjar, IS militants rounded up the Yazidi population, separating men and boys from women and girls.
Men were executed, while women and girls were abducted and treated as property, often sold or given away as sexual slaves to IS fighters.
Estimates suggest that IS killed over 3,000 Yazidis and captured around 6,000, many of whom were subjected to unspeakable horrors.
The United Nations has since recognized these atrocities as genocide and charged IS with numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Despite the rescue of more than 3,500 Yazidis, approximately 2,600 individuals from the community remain unaccounted for.
