Yazidi Woman Freed After 10 Years in Gaza by Israeli, US Operation

A Yazidi woman who was held captive for a decade has been reunited with her family in Iraq. The woman, Fawzia Amin Sido, was 11 years old when she was abducted by ISIS terrorists in 2014. She was then trafficked to Gaza and forced to marry a Hamas fighter. She managed to escape after her captor was killed in an IDF strike, fleeing to a hideout within Gaza.

In a joint effort between Israel, the U.S., and other international partners, Amin Sido was rescued from Gaza on October 1. She was brought to Israel through the Kerem Shalom Crossing, then to Jordan via the Allenby Bridge Crossing, and ultimately returned to her family in Iraq.

“In a complex operation coordinated between Israel, the United States, and other international actors, she was recently rescued in a secret mission from the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom Crossing,” the IDF said in a statement Thursday. “Upon her entry into Israel, she continued to Jordan through the Allenby Bridge Crossing and from there-returned to her family in Iraq.”

The operation was led by the IDF’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories unit, with assistance from the U.S. Embassy in Israel and other international actors.

“Her story is heartbreaking, and we are glad that she will be reunited with her family in Iraq,” a spokesperson for the State Department told Digital.  “As Secretary [Antony] Blinken has noted, ‘2,600 Yezidis remain missing and unaccounted for.  We are determined to find them, to learn their fates, and to rescue those who remain alive’.”

The IDF stated that Amin Sido’s case is “further evidence of the connection between the and ISIS.”

ISIS attacked Yazidi populations in the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar in August 2014, abducting some 6,400 people and killing another 1,200, by the Times of Israel.

Roughly half of the abductees have reportedly been able to escape or have been freed. 

The like Hamas signify a growing shift in the Middle East in which extremist groups, despite prior differences, are increasingly expanding ties, often facilitated by the backing of Iran.

The IDF vowed to continue to counter the “Hamas-ISIS terrorist organization” by striking terrorist-based infrastructure sites and pledged to “free all hostages in Hamas captivity.”

There are still , including seven Americans, most of whom were taken during the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks, though four of them were abducted in 2014 and 2015. 

This figure does not include other Yazidi abductees mentioned by Blinken who may also be being held in Gaza.