Yazidi woman held hostage for 10 years in Gaza freed in Israel, US operation
A Yazidi woman held captive by Islamic terrorists for the last decade has been reunited with her family in Iraq following her escape and safe evacuation on Oct. 1 in a coordinated effort between Israeli and U.S. officials, the State Department confirmed to Fox News Digital on Thursday.
Fawzia Amin Sido, now 21, was just 11 years old when she was kidnapped by ISIS terrorists before she was sold and trafficked into Gaza, where she was forced to marry an alleged Hamas fighter.
Amin Sido was apparently able to escape after her captor was killed in what was believed to have been an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) strike, enabling her to flee to a "hideout" within the Gaza Strip.
Fawzia Amin Sido escaped Hamas captivity in Gaza after being kidnapped 10 years prior. Her identity remains protected by international authorities. (Photo provided by the Israel Defense Forc)
CHILDREN ONCE HELD HOSTAGE STILL WORKING THROUGH TRAUMA: 'ARE THEY COMING FOR US AGAIN?'
"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 along with help provided by the U.S. Embassy in Israel, as well as other international actors, though the IDF did not detail who.
"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 Fox News 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 said the coordinated trafficking efforts in Amin Sido’s case are "further evidence of the connection between the terrorist organization Hamas and ISIS."
A view of destroyed buildings as the scale of destruction caused by Israeli attacks comes to surface following the withdrawal of the Israeli army in Khan Yunis, Gaza on Sept. 29, 2024. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu via Getty Images)
WHY NO ISIS MEMBER HAS BEEN CHARGED WITH GENOCIDE OR SEXUAL VIOLENCE FOR CRIMES AGAINST YAZIDIS
ISIS attacked Yazidi populations in the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar in August 2014, abducting some 6,400 people and killing another 1,200, according to a report by the Times of Israel.
Roughly half of the abductees have reportedly been able to escape or have been freed.
The growing ties between ISIS and other terrorist organizations 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.
A woman member of Iraq's Yazidi community holds photos of victims of the August 2014 massacre carried out in the Sinjar region by Islamic State group militants during a commemoration of the eighth anniversary of the event at the Temple of Lalish, the holiest temple of the faith, in the Lalish valley near the Iraqi Kurdish city of Dohuk on Aug. 2, 2022. (Photo by ISMAEL ADNAN/AFP via Getty Images)
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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 101 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, 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.
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