Yazidi woman rescued from Gaza reunites with her family in IRaq
Yazidi woman Fawzia Amin, who was rescued from Gaza told CNN that she was kidnapped as a child when ISIS captured Iraq's northern city of Sinjar and since then was trafficked across several counties over the next few years.
“We ended up in Al-Hol camp [in Syria] before we were smuggled to Idlib in 2019, and from there, we went to Turkey. In 2020, they arranged a passport for me in Turkey so I could fly from Istanbul to Hurghada, Egypt, and then to Gaza,” she said.
For the past year, she had been in the southern part of the Gaza Strip in Rafah where life, she said was unbearable until she was rescued. “Hamas constantly harassed me due to my Yazidi background and contact with my family, even going so far as to format my phone during their investigations,” she said.
Amin contacted Roi Kais, an Israeli journalist with Kan Broadcasting Authority, and sent him a photo of her fake I.D. identifying her as Mariam Mohamed. She said she had been abducted by a group she could not name and was in Mouassi in Khan Younis, on her own. To show she was there she then turned her camera on the destruction around her that she said was caused by Israeli attacks and asked for help to get out of there.
She asked Kais not to report on her story.
According to the IDF, her rescue marks a complex political-diplomatic process carried out with the aid of Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT).
Fawzia was taken from her home in Iraq to Syria after she was kidnapped, where she was purchased by a Palestinian ISIS supporter who brought her to Gaza. She was forced to bear his children, and he later returned to Syria, where he was reportedly killed in an attack. However, the terrorist’s family continued to hold the woman hostage until her recent release.
The Iraqi Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Sido’s release, now 21 years old, noting that it was carried out "via a joint effort with the international intelligence service," without mentioning Israel's role or the fact she was held in Gaza.
According to Iraq’s foreign ministry, the release was coordinated "in close collaboration with the U.S. embassies in Baghdad and Amman, as well as Jordanian authorities, after over four months of efforts and monitoring." The ministry also mentioned that Sido was moved between several countries before being released.
Her family said they were able to be in contact with her and that she told them she was in Gaza but claimed she had been brainwashed and asked them to leave her there.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry’s digital diplomacy division head David Saranga announced the rescue on Thursday and said, "Fauzia was held captive by a Palestinian Hamas-ISIS member for years. Now, she has reunited with her family. Her story is a reminder of the cruelty faced by Yazidi children who were taken by force. Some 101 Israelis are still held hostage in Gaza.”
Get the Ynetnews app on your smartphone: