Secret operation frees Yazidi woman from Gaza after decade in captivity

Many Yazidis are feared dead but activists say they believe hundreds are still alive

Yazidi woman rescued from Gaza after decade in captivity. Photo: David Saranga / X

A secret operation has freed a 21-year-old Yazidi woman from Gaza a decade after she was kidnapped by ISIS militants in Iraq.

The operation was months in the making and involved Israel, the US and Iraq, officials said.

The Yazidis are an ancient religious minority mostly found in Iraq and Syria, which saw more than 5,000 members killed and thousands kidnapped in an ISIS campaign in 2014 that the UN has said constituted genocide.

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The woman, identified as Fawzia Sido, was freed after more than four months of efforts that involved several failed attempts to the difficult security situation during Israel's military offensive in Gaza, Silwan Sinjaree, chief of staff of Iraq's foreign minister, told Reuters.

Reuters could not reach the woman directly for comment, with Iraqi officials saying she was resting after having been reunited with her family in northern Iraq.

Iraqi officials had been in contact with the woman for months and passed on her information to US officials, who arranged for her exit from Gaza with the help of Israel, according to a source. Iraq and Israel do not have any diplomatic ties.

The Israeli military said it had co-ordinated with the US embassy and "other international actors" in the operation to free Ms Sido.

It said in a statement her captor had been killed during the Israel-Hamas war, presumably by an Israeli strike, and she then fled to a hideout inside the Gaza Strip.

"In a complex operation co-ordinated 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 [Karam Abu Salem] crossing," it said.

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After entering Israel, Ms Sido continued on to Jordan through the Allenby Bridge crossing, and from there returned to her family in Iraq, the military said.

A State Department representative said the US on Tuesday "helped to safely evacuate from Gaza a young Yazidi woman to be reunited with her family in Iraq".

The representative said she was kidnapped from her home in Iraq aged 11 and sold and trafficked to Gaza. Her captor was recently killed, allowing her to escape and seek repatriation.

Mr Sinjaree said Ms Sido was in good physical condition but was traumatised by her time in captivity and by the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani had directly followed up on the issue with US officials on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York last month, according to Khalaf Sinjar, his adviser for Yazidi affairs.

More than 6,000 Yazidis were captured by ISIS militants from Sinjar region in Iraq in 2014, with many sold into sexual slavery or trained as child soldiers and taken across borders, including to Syria.

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

Many are feared dead but Yazidi activists say they believe hundreds are still alive.