(Cupventi.com) – A Yazidi woman, who had been held captive by ISIS for nearly a decade, has finally been reunited with her family in Iraq. Fawzia Amin Sido, now 21, was kidnapped by ISIS terrorists when she was only 11 years old and subsequently sold into Gaza, where she was forced into marriage with a Hamas fighter.
Sido managed to escape after her captor was killed in what is believed to have been an Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) airstrike. She fled to a hideout within the Gaza Strip before being rescued in a secret mission coordinated between Israeli, U.S., and international forces. The IDF announced that the operation, involving the IDF’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories unit and assistance from the U.S. Embassy in Israel, safely brought Sido through the Kerem Shalom Crossing and into Israel. From there, she continued to Jordan before being reunited with her family in Iraq.
A U.S. State Department spokesperson expressed relief at her rescue, noting, “Her story is heartbreaking, and we are glad that she will be reunited with her family in Iraq.” The State Department reiterated its commitment to finding and rescuing the remaining 2,600 missing Yazidis, as emphasized by Secretary Antony Blinken.
The IDF highlighted that Sido’s case demonstrated the growing connection between ISIS and Hamas, signaling a deeper collaboration between the two extremist groups. The IDF pledged continued efforts to counter these terrorist organizations by targeting Hamas’s infrastructure and working to free all hostages still in their captivity.
ISIS’s brutal attack on the Yazidi population in 2014 left deep scars, with 6,400 Yazidis abducted and over 1,200 killed. Many of the abductees remain missing, though roughly half have managed to escape or have been freed.
As of now, 101 hostages remain in Hamas captivity, including seven Americans, many of whom were abducted in the October 2023 attacks. The list does not include other Yazidi hostages that may still be held in Gaza, as referenced by Blinken.