Girl taken as ISIS slave at age 11, held captive for 10 years by Hamas, is rescued from Gaza
Yazidi woman Fawzia Amin Sido
A woman kidnapped as a young girl at the age of 11 by ISIS terrorists and later held by Hamas for a decade has been rescued by Israeli forces in Gaza, officials said. The United States led a month-long operation to free the 21-year-old Yazidi woman.
Fawzia Amin Sido was freed earlier this week and was greeted by her emotional family as soon as she returned to her native Iraq.
“Fawzia, a Yazidi girl kidnapped by ISIS from Iraq and brought to Gaza at just 11 years old, has finally been rescued by the Israeli security forces,” tweeted David Saranga, the director of the digital diplomacy bureau at Israel’s foreign ministry.
“For years, she was held captive by a Palestinian Hamas-ISIS member. She has now been reunited with her family."
He added that "her story is a reminder of the brutality faced by Yazidi children, taken without a choice."
Notably, ISIS captured more than 6,000 Yazidis in 2014, with many of them being sold into sexual slavery and others trained as child soldiers.
Sido is said to be in good physical condition, although she is mentally traumatised after spending all these years in captivity, Iraqi officials said.
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Israel, Jordan and Iraq were also part of the operation, according to officials.
ISIS captured Yazidis 10 years back
Yazidi communities across Iraq faced terror attacks by Islamic State jihadists in 2014 and this is when Sido was taken as a young girl from her family. She was quickly sold off before being trafficked to Gaza, where she spent the next 10 years in captivity.
Reports suggest that the Iraqi officials were in touch with the woman for several months before the rescue efforts were conducted this week. She had also given her information to US officials.
Iraqi officials further informed that efforts to rescue her had been on for months. However, the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza hampered the plans and they faced failure on several occasions over the past four months.
No details about the rescue operation have been revealed, although a State Department spokesperson said that Sido’s captor was recently killed, and this led her to seek repatriation.
Of the more than 6,000 Yazidis captured in 2014, 2,600 remain missing with most of them feared dead. Around 3,500 have been rescued or freed.
