The IDF confirmed that Fawzia, who was reunited with her family after a decade in Gaza, was rescued in a covert operation to Jordan, from where she moved to Iraq. In Baghdad, officials stated that her details were sent to the USA, but the rescue took four months due to the ongoing war in Gaza. 'She was traumatized,' the Iraqi Foreign Ministry reported. This case highlights the plight of the Yazidis, a group targeted by ISIS in what has been recognized as genocide.
Fawzia Amin Sido, a 21-year-old Yazidi woman who was trafficked by ISIS operatives in Iraq and sold to a Hamas member linked to ISIS, managed to escape after he was killed during the war. The IDF confirmed the rescue this evening (Thursday), stating that the terrorist holding her was likely killed in an Israeli strike in the Gaza Strip, which allowed her to flee to a hiding place.
After complex coordination involving the USA, Jordan, and Iraq in recent days, the young woman was evacuated through a covert operation via the Kerem Shalom crossing, after which she was transported to Jordan and then to Iraq.
The Iraqi foreign minister's chief of staff stated that efforts to secure Fawzia's release took four months, due to challenges posed by IDF operations in Gaza. Iraqi officials had been in contact with Fawzia for months and shared her details with the U.S., which coordinated her rescue. According to the chief of staff, Fawzia is in good physical health but deeply traumatized by her time in captivity with the terrorist and the harsh humanitarian conditions in Gaza. A video was released this morning showing her emotional reunion with her family in northern Iraq.
Although there was no military rescue operation, David Saranga, head of the Digital Diplomacy Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, announced that Israeli security forces were responsible for rescuing Fawzia from the Gaza Strip. Saranga stated, "For years, Fawzia was held captive by a Hamas-ISIS operative. Now, she has been reunited with her family. Her story highlights the brutality faced by Yazidi children, who were taken against their will. It serves as a reminder that 101 Israelis are still being held hostage in Gaza."
In 2014, when ISIS launched a campaign of conquest, seizing a third of Iraq and large parts of Syria, it targeted many of its massacres against the Yazidis, whom it, as a Sunni organization, considered infidels. It is estimated that ISIS murdered around 5,000 Yazidi men and elderly women during these massacres and captured approximately 7,000 Yazidi women, girls, and boys. The young women and girls were enslaved and forced into sexual slavery by ISIS militants. The UN officially recognized ISIS's actions against the Yazidis as genocide.
The Yazidi community in Iraq is a small, religious minority with elements of Islam, Zoroastrianism, and Christianity, historically isolated and often persecuted by various rulers and armies. One of the most infamous massacres occurred in Sinjar in August 2014, which contributed to the U.S.-led coalition’s decision to launch airstrikes and intensify the fight against ISIS.
Over the years, about 3,500 Yazidi women have been freed or rescued, but many remain missing. According to Yazidi activists, most are presumed dead, although hundreds may still be alive. Global attention on the atrocities against Yazidi women peaked in 2018 when Nadia Murad, a Yazidi survivor who had been kidnapped and forced into sexual slavery by ISIS, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her activism for women’s rights. This recognition coincided with the rise of the MeToo movement.
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