A Yazidi woman who was kidnapped by ISIS terrorists at age 11 and then held by Hamas for a decade has been rescued by Israeli forces in Gaza after a months-long operation led by the US, officials said.
Fawzia Amin Sido, 21, was rescued earlier this week. A footage of her being embraced tightly by her family soon after reaching Iraq was released by officials.
The Israeli military said Ms Sido was freed after an operation coordinated between Israel, the United States, and other international actors.
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
When she was 11, Fawzia was trafficked by ISIS to a Hamas terrorist in Gaza, who was presumably killed during IDF strikes, the officials said in a statement. She fled to a hideout in which she was rescued in a secret mission through the Kerem Shalom Crossing, the official release mentioned.
David Saranga, Head of Digital Diplomacy Bureau in the Foreign Ministry of Israel, said her story is a reminder of the brutality faced by Yazidi children.
"Her story is a reminder of the brutality faced by Yazidi children, taken without a choice. Remember, there are still 101 Israelis being held hostage in Gaza," he tweeted.
After the 2014 massacres, some 1,00,000 Yazidis fled to Europe, the United States, Australia and Canada, according to the United Nations.
The Israeli military has been fighting against Hamas in Gaza since its unprecedented attack on Israel almost a year ago which resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, according to an AFP tally.
Israel's retaliatory military offensive in Gaza has killed at least 41,788 people, the majority of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.
