Yazidi Woman Rescued from Gaza After Years of Captivity Following ISIS Kidnapping

[Social Media]

 

A Yazidi woman named Fawzia Amin Sido, who was kidnapped by ISIS at the age of 11 and trafficked to the Gaza Strip, has been reunited with her family in Iraq. Her abduction occurred in 2014 when ISIS forces launched brutal attacks on Yazidi communities in Iraq, seizing control of large areas of the country. During this chaos, Sido was taken from her family and sold to a Gazan man who happened to be in Iraq at the time.

Fawzia, a Yazidi girl kidnapped by ISIS from Iraq and brought to Gaza at just 11 years old, has finally been rescued by the Israeli security forces.

For years, she was held captive by a Palestinian Hamas-ISIS member.

She has now been reunited with her family. Her story is a… pic.twitter.com/nkVotqYdov

— David Saranga (@DavidSaranga) October 3, 2024

 

Sido’s release and return to her homeland were announced separately by the foreign ministries of both Israel and Iraq.

 

According to Israel's foreign ministry, Israeli security forces played a significant role in her extraction from Gaza. The operation was described as complex and involved the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), and the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, in coordination with other international parties. 

 

In a statement, the IDF disclosed that Sido's captor, identified as a terrorist, had been killed in an Israeli strike during the recent fighting in Gaza, allowing her to flee to a hiding spot. After days of evasion, she was rescued through the Kerem Shalom crossing into Israel. From there, she was transported to Jordan via the Allenby Crossing before being reunited with her family in Iraq. The IDF emphasized that the incident provided further proof of the connections between Hamas and ISIS, and underscored the crimes against humanity carried out by these groups.

 

The Iraqi Foreign Ministry also issued a statement about Sido’s release, thanking the joint efforts of U.S. embassies in Baghdad and Amman, along with Jordanian authorities. However, no mention of Israeli involvement was made in their announcement. A U.S. State Department spokesperson confirmed that the U.S. had helped safely evacuate Sido from Gaza, describing her as a young Yazidi woman who had been kidnapped from Iraq and trafficked to Gaza. Her captor’s recent death made her escape and repatriation possible.

 

Steve Maman, a Jewish philanthropist who has been referred to as the “Jewish Schindler” for his work in helping rescue Yazidis, shared a video of Sido reuniting with her family. Maman wrote on social media, “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. To her, it seemed surreal and impossible but not to me, my only enemy was time. Our team reunited her moments ago with her mother and family in Sinjar.”

 

David Saranga, Director of the Foreign Ministry’s Digital Diplomacy Bureau, also commented on her release, stating: “For years, she was held captive by a Palestinian Hamas-ISIS member. Her story is a reminder of the brutality faced by Yazidi children, taken without a choice.” 

 

Sido’s rescue marks the end of a long and harrowing chapter in her life, one that highlights the suffering of the Yazidi community at the hands of ISIS and the brutalities endured by those taken captive during the conflict.

 

Based on a report from BBC | Sky | X 2024-10-05

 

 

 

[Tug]

I’m glad she’s home poor thing I sincerely hope she and her family can put their lives back together.