Sold ten years ago by Daesh to a member of Hamas who held her captive in the Gaza Strip, a Yazidi woman, now aged 21, was released by the Israeli army this week, the IDF announced.
The Israeli army said Thursday that it had released this week a young Yazidi woman held captive in the Gaza Strip for ten years after being kidnapped by Daesh jihadists and “sold” to a member of Hamas.
According to the army, this 21-year-old woman was “rescued” in the Gaza Strip, where Israel has been at war with the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas for almost a year, as part of “a complex operation in coordination with the United States, Jordan and other international partners.
“The terrorist who held her was killed, probably during strikes [israéliennes]and she managed to escape and remain hidden somewhere in the Gaza Strip,” said a statement from the Israeli army, without further details.
“She was rescued recently as part of a secret mission” before crossing into Jordan “and from there she returned to her family in Iraq,” the military statement added without further details.
The young woman “who was returned to her family after returning to Iraq” had been kidnapped by members of Daesh and moved to several countries before being released, adds Iraqi diplomacy, without mentioning the Gaza Strip.
After a meteoric rise to power in 2014, Daesh has increased its abuses in the territories it conquered in Iraq and Syria. Thousands of men were massacred, women kidnapped to be sold as wives to jihadists and reduced to sexual slavery. Daesh was routed in 2017.
“Not in a good mental state”
“Daesh sold her to a member of Hamas, but she was held captive by a group of Hamas members, this is further proof of the ideological links between Hamas and Daesh,” said Brigadier General Elad Goren, head of Cogat, an Israeli Defense Ministry agency overseeing civilian activities in the Palestinian Territories.
The young woman was in good health “but not in a good mental state,” he added, “we understand that the experience she went through was terrible.”
Of the 251 people kidnapped in Israel on October 7 during the Hamas attack that sparked the current war, 97 remain captive in Gaza, 33 of whom were declared dead by the Israeli army.
The Yazidis are an ethnic minority, followers of an esoteric monotheistic religion but considered by ISIS as heretics, who live mostly in Iraq and Syria.
