Yazidi woman kidnapped by IS as a child 10 years ago freed from Gaza captivity

Fawzia Amin Sido
Fawzia Amin Sido

A Yazidi woman who was kidnapped by Islamic State as a child before being sent to Hamas in Gaza has been rescued after more than a decade in captivity.

Fawzia Amin Sido was just 11 when she was forced to marry a Palestinian IS fighter before being trafficked to Gaza, where she faced repeated torture.

Ms Sido, originally from Iraq, is now 21 and returned home this week after escaping from Gaza in an operation involving the US, Jordan and Iraq.

Fawzia Amin Sido is led to safety
Fawzia Amin Sido is led to safety after a remarkable rescue from Gaza

Her rescue came after four months of failed attempts due to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, according to the Iraq foreign ministry.

But it is believed her escape was then made easier after her captor was “presumably killed” during Israeli strikes on Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.

The strikes reportedly allowed Ms Sido to escape captivity and hide elsewhere, before being rescued.

“The young girl was extracted from the Gaza Strip in recent days in a secret operation through the Kerem Shalom crossing,” the IDF said.

“After crossing into Israel, she was taken to Jordan via the Allenby Crossing and then on to her family in Iraq.”

Ms Sido is in good physical condition, but suffering from intense trauma after spending 10 years in captivity and witnessing the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, Silwan Sinjaree, chief of staff of Iraq’s foreign minister, said.

Steve Maman, a Jewish Canadian philanthropist who devotes his time to rescuing Yazidis held in captivity, shared a video which showed Ms Sido reuniting with her family.

Fawzia Amin Sido
Fawzia Amin Sido has been rescued after over a decade in captivity and has now been reunited with her family

“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,” Mr Maman said after she was freed.

“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.”

He went on to say it was one of the “most difficult” rescue operations he had ever taken part in.

“I must thank the US government, my contacts in the US, Iraq, Jordan and Israel,” he told the Jerusalem Post.

A state department spokesman said the US on Tuesday “helped to safely evacuate from Gaza a young Yazidi woman to be reunited with her family in Iraq”.

More than 6,000 Yazidis were captured by IS militants from the Sinjar region in Iraq in 2014.

Many were sold into sexual slavery or trained as child soldiers and taken across borders, including to Turkey and Syria.

Over the years, more than 3,500 have been rescued or freed, according to Iraqi authorities, with around 2,600 still missing.

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