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This screenshot from a social media video posted on October 3 shows Yazidi woman Fawzia Sido, who was kidnapped by the Islamic State of Iraq and freed from Gaza this week, meeting her relatives at an undisclosed location.

The Israeli military said Thursday that it had rescued a 21-year-old Yazidi woman who had been held captive by Hamas in Gaza for more than a decade in a “complex operation” coordinated with the United States. after being trafficked by ISIS other international actors.

The woman, Fawzia Amin Sido, told CNN that she was abducted as a child by ISIS in August 2014 when the group captured the city of Sinjar in northern Iraq. As CNN reported, ISIS executed Yazidi men and boys and committed sexual violence and rape against women and girls, among other things.

Sido said she was then trafficked to various locations in several countries over the next few years.

She told CNN that she remained in Rafah, southern Gaza, where life was “unbearable” for a year, moving frequently since the Israel-Hamas war broke out in October 2023, until Tuesday when she said an NGO had her saved.

“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 investigation,” she said.

“After entering Israel, she traveled via the Allenby Bridge crossing to Jordan and from there returned to her family in Iraq.”

The IDF said her captor was “presumably killed during IDF attacks” in Gaza, allowing her to escape to hiding.

Fawzia did not mention a strike when she spoke to CNN, saying only that she was rescued in Rafah by an NGO whose name she did not know. “From there, American officials took me and helped me return to Baghdad,” she said.

The United States and Iraq confirmed that they had coordinated to help evacuate Sido from Gaza.

“We were contacted by the Iraqi government who were informed that she had escaped, that she was alive and that she wanted to return home to her family,” state spokesman Matthew Miller said Thursday.

The Iraqi Foreign Ministry said Sido was released after more than four months of efforts by Iraqi government authorities working with American and Jordanian authorities.

An Israeli diplomat, David Saranga, released a video of Sido's reunion with her family members. Saranga said her captor was “a Palestinian Hamas-ISIS member.”