Yazidi Woman Kidnapped by ISIS a Decade Ago Rescued in Gaza

Displaced Iraqis from the Yazidi community gather for humanitarian aid at Nowruz camp, in Derike, Syria, on Aug. 12, 2014. AP Photo/ Khalid Mohammed

A young Yazidi woman, kidnapped by ISIS terrorists at the age of 11 from her home in Iraq, has been rescued in Gaza in an operation involving the United States and several other countries.

The rescue and safe return of 21-year-old Fawzia Amin Sido was announced separately on Oct. 3 by officials from Israel and Iraq. According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), her captor was likely killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, allowing her to escape and hide in the besieged enclave.

“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. “Upon her entry into Israel, she continued to Jordan through the Allenby Bridge Crossing and from there—returned to her family in Iraq.”

The IDF emphasized that Fawzia’s presence in Gaza adds “further evidence” of the connection between the Hamas terrorist group and ISIS. David Saranga, director of the digital diplomacy bureau at the Israeli Foreign Ministry, echoed this, saying that the woman was held captive by a “Palestinian Hamas–ISIS member.”

Fawzia Amin Sido (R) being taken through the Kerem Shalom crossing after being rescued from Gaza, in a photo released on Oct. 3, 2024. Israel Defense Forces

Steve Maman, a Canadian philanthropist who runs a nonprofit group dedicated to freeing Christian and Yazidi women captured and forced into sex slavery by ISIS, shared a video of Fawzia reuniting with her family on Oct. 2.

“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,” Maman wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “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.”

The Iraqi Foreign Ministry acknowledged “more than four months” of efforts in “high coordination” with the U.S. embassies in Baghdad and Amman, as well as the government of Jordan, but made no mention of Israel’s role or that Fawzia was held in Gaza.

Fawzia Amin Sido (C) back in Iraq after being rescued from Gaza, in a photo released on Oct. 3, 2024. Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs

At a press briefing on Oct. 3, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller revealed that Fawzia was sold into Gaza, where she was “forced to marry” a member of Hamas.

Miller also confirmed that the United States provided assistance in Fawzia’s rescue at the request of the Iraqi government but declined to disclose more details about the role Washington played in the operation.

Fawzia belongs to the Yazidi religious minority, predominantly Kurdish and primarily found in Iraq and Syria. The U.S. government recognizes the Yazidis as victims of a broader ISIS-led genocide against those deemed heretics or otherwise undesirable, which include Christians and non-Sunni Muslims.

In August 2014, shortly after ISIS proclaimed an Islamic Caliphate, it attacked Sinjar, the Yazidi homeland in northern Iraq. More than 3,000 Yazidis—mostly men and elderly women—were killed, and about 6,000 women and children were captured for sexual slavery and trafficking, while boys were trained as child soldiers.

In 2015, with the support of U.S.-led coalition airstrikes, Kurdish forces liberated Sinjar from ISIS control. Two years later, Iraq officially declared victory over ISIS after reclaiming the majority of territories once held by ISIS.

Yet more than 2,600 Yazidi women and girls remain missing today, according to the State Department. The process of identifying and exhuming mass graves continues.