Gaza authorities refute Israeli allegations of 'rescuing' Iraqi Yazidi woman

By Anadolu staff

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - Authorities in Gaza denied on Friday denied Israeli allegations of "rescuing" an Iraqi Yazidi woman from the enclave, stressing that the woman was in the territory of her own free will and was married to a Palestinian man killed by Israel.

Israeli media on Thursday quoted a Foreign Ministry statement claiming that the Yazidi woman, Fawzia Amin Sido, who was kidnapped from Iraq by the Daesh terrorist group in 2014 at age 11 and trafficked to the Gaza Strip, had been rescued by Israeli army and reunited with her family.

In a statement, the Gaza-based government media office said Israel "promoted a false narrative and fabricated story about the Yazidi woman who was present in the Gaza Strip," and recounted "fake events with no basis in truth" in an attempt to whitewash their bloodshed in Gaza.

The communications office said the Yazidi woman was married to a Palestinian man in Khan Younis, who was killed in the course of the Israeli attacks on Gaza, which have continued since last October and have thus far claimed almost 41,000 lives.

The statement said that after her husband's death, she approached authorities in Gaza for protection and to help her in contacting her family in Iraq.

It added that the woman is 25 years old, contrary to the Israeli claim that she is 21, and that she arrived in Gaza from northern Syria through Türkiye and Egypt via official channels.

"How could she pass through all these security checkpoints without being noticed," the statement said.

The media office said the woman was hosted in a government facility in southern Gaza, but due to incessant Israel bombardment she felt unsafe and wanted to be evacuated. Hence, her family asked Jordan to help.

Thanks to Amman's coordination with the Israeli authorities, she left Gaza "with the knowledge of the Gaza government" through the Kerem Shalom crossing. "The (Israeli) occupation did not rescue her as they falsely claimed in their misleading statement," the readout said.

"We stress that the same (Israeli) occupation, which lies to the public, is the one that killed her husband and turned her life into a real tragedy, leaving her a widow."

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar in Ankara