Young Yazidi girl kidnapped by ISIS in Iraq and sold to Hamas member, rescued by Israel a decade later

Fawzia Amin Sido He was only 11 years old when in 2014 he was kidnapped in Iraq by the terrorist group Islamic State (IE). After his capture, the jihadists They sold this Yazidi girl to a Hamas militant and nothing else has been heard from her…until now. This Thursday, the Israeli army announced that the young woman, now 21 years old, had been released, ending a decade of captivity.

The little girl was separated from her family ten years ago, amid the Islamic State’s bloody attacks on Yazidi communities in Iraq.

Fawzia Amin Sido was then sold to a Hamas member visiting Iraq. taking him with him to Gaza, where she has remained detained ever since.

As reported by the Israel Defense Forces (FDI) In a statement, the young Yazidi woman was able to escape from captivity recently after the terrorist who held her was killed in an Israeli attack in the Gaza Strip. The young woman fled and hid in a safe place until she was located by the Israeli army.

“As part of a complex operation coordinated between Israel, the United States and other international actors, she was recently rescued during a secret mission from the Gaza Strip via the Kerem Shalom Passage“, the army said, specifying that she was then transferred to Jordan and, finally, to Iraq, where she was able to reunite with her family.

According to Silwan Sinjaree, chief of staff of the Iraqi Minister of Foreign Affairs, the young woman was in good physical condition but traumatized for the long time he spent in captivity and for the terrible humanitarian situation in Gaza.

The Israeli army released two photos showing the woman in a location that appears to be an intersection. Kerem Shalom to Gazawhere trucks carrying humanitarian aid have been piling up for months due to obstacles to its distribution caused by Israel’s constant attacks. Later, another image was published on social networks where we see the young woman in better shape and on the verge of being reunited with her family.

The Iraqi Yazidi activist Nadia Mourad, The 2018 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and founder of the NGO The Nadia Initiative, which helps Yazidi women, sex slaves of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, applauded this rescue on her social networks.

“After the fall of the caliphate in Iraq and Syria (in 2017 and 2019 respectively), ISIS transferred her to Gaza. She is not the only one detained in Gaza by ISIS. During the ten In recent years, the Iraqi authorities and the international community “We have not saved Yazidi women and girls captive in Gaza, Syria and other parts of the region,” he denounced.

The heartbreaking case of this young girl is not isolated since, according to various reports from human rights organizations, Thousands of Yazidi women and girls were sold as sex slaves or forced to marry members of the Islamic State.

Although the fall of the Islamic State caliphate in Iraq in 2017 ended some of these crimes, Many of these victims remain missing..