‘We’re humans not animals’: Dozens of ex-IS brides and their children desperate to go home
Tens of thousands of women – many of them Western – and once married to Islamic State men are still being held in two closed tented camps in the war-torn country nearly five years after the fall of the extremist terror group
Shamima Begum – who ran away to join IS whilst still a teenager at school in east London – is not the only woman to be effectively disowned and abandoned by her home country.
We found dozens of families who once lived in the so-called IS Caliphate urging their governments to rescue them from the barricaded camps manned by armed guards where they’re now being held in north-east Syria.
Ms Begum, who last week lost her latest legal challenge in London’s High Court challenging the decision to strip her of her British citizen status, opted not to talk to us when we arrived at the smaller of the two camps, Al Roj.
The 24-year-old, whose lawyers are arguing she was trafficked to Syria whilst still a minor, took off when she spotted us, running through the maze of tents to avoid our meeting.
But we found many others desperate to talk after what they say are several agonising years of not being heard and nothing done to help them.
‘We’re humans, not animals’
We spoke to British, Australian, Belgian, German, Dutch and Caribbean women who all insist they and their children are being punished for the sins of their partners and fathers.
Many claimed they’d been raped or tricked into going to Syria and in some cases trafficked. All said they couldn’t escape.
Sky News’ Alex Crawford speaks to a resident from the UK
Most of the Western women and their children are in Al Roj where they’ve been without electricity for the past month and where conditions are brutally tough.
“We are human beings, not animals at the end of the day,” one Australian mother-of-three told us on condition of anonymity because she’s in the middle of a legal process to be repatriated.
“An animal wouldn’t be able to withstand these conditions. My son nearly died last year…and my government is aware of this!”
She went on: “Not just the children but most of the women here are being punished for a decision that was made on their behalf…decisions we didn’t make ourselves.
“And our government, even though we’ve reached out continuously is refusing to acknowledge that their citizens are still here trapped in the camps. Australian-born children are still here.”
Multiple countries saw their citizens travel to the region to answer the IS call to create a caliphate around the year 2014.
The terror group went on to take over huge swathes of Syria and Iraq, imposing a harsh and terrifying version of Sharia Law, carrying out executions and crushing any form of dissent.
The IS fighters slaughtered thousands of men from the ethnic Yazidi group because they view them as devil worshippers – and went onto kidnap thousands of Yazidi women turning them into slaves and brutalising them for years.
More than two thousand Yazidi women are still missing and believed to remain in captivity with IS sleeper cells ten years after IS began their massacre.
‘Let us come back’
One British woman from Leeds told us how she was persuaded to go to Syria by her husband who was from Birmingham but has since died in the fighting which followed. Her seven-year-old son Adam was born in Raqqa, the capital of the IS caliphate in Syria.
“It was a bad mistake,’ she said of her decision, ‘But I want to go back home. There’re no schools here,’ she said, ‘No reading or writing – nothing and there’s no doctors. No, don’t do this to Adam, he’s innocent.”
She too asked not to be named after advice from lawyers but appealed to the prime minister to let her return saying she was prepared to stand trial and face any legal consequences.
“Let us come back,” she begged, “My family, my mum, my dad, my brothers all live in England and I want to come back and face trial there…five years I’ve been here. I am tired and I’m sick.”
She walks with a crutch and is paralysed down one side after the vehicle she was travelling in around Baghouz was hit during the fighting to dislodge IS and she was injured.
We go on to hear her story repeated many times with a range of different nationalities telling us they’d been forgotten or dumped by their Governments. Casandra Bodart, a Belgian national with blonde hair and wearing a t-shirt and jeans told us she realised soon after she arrived in Syria that she’d made a terrible mistake.
“For a long time, I tried to escape from there,” she told us.
“But my husband didn’t want me to because it’s like radical you know in the ideology of the Islamic State (to leave your husband) and he told me, if you try to escape I will kill you with my hands.”
‘I tried to run away twice’
Zakija Kacar told us she lived in Germany for 29 years, had a job and gave birth to two children there before being tricked by her husband and taken to Raqqa.
“I tried to run away two times but they caught me and they beat me – then where could I go? I stayed and then he died after four months and I was pregnant so what could I do?”
Read more:
IS’s ‘sophisticated’ propaganda campaign
Two shot dead in public execution
She says she was forced to marry another man she didn’t know or love and give birth to two more children, one in Al Roj.
Her five year old youngest daughter has not known any life outside the fences and armed guards of Al Roj camp.
“I hope they can give me a second chance,” she said.
Her ten year old who was born in Stuttgart has forgotten her German and now speaks Arabic.
Safija wants to study to be a doctor but “here is not good,” she told us, “We are trapped like chickens. I want to go out and go to parks.”
‘My kids have done nothing wrong’
The overwhelming bulk of the camp’s residents are children and a string of human rights groups and aid agencies have condemned the conditions in both camps as well as what they call the arbitrary detention of minors for what their parents might have done.
No-one in the camps has stood trial or being questioned in a court over any crimes they might have committed.
UN experts said in a report last year: “The mass detention of children in North-East Syria for what their parents may have done is an egregious violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which prohibits all forms of discrimination and punishment of a child based on the status, activities, expressed opinions, or beliefs of their parents.”
In one section of the camp called Australia Street because of the domination of Australians living there, there are rainbows and painted maps of Australia.
One mother from Melbourne called Kirsty Rosse-Emile told us she had two small children, aged seven and four who she desperately wants to take back home.
“My kids have done absolutely nothing wrong. My daughter was two years old when we came here and they know nothing and I’m trying to protect them from everything.”
US President Donald Trump is putting “heavy” pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the war in Gaza, two sources close to the ceasefire negotiations have told Sky News.
One US source said: “The US pressure on Israel has begun, and tonight it will be heavy.”
The source, who is not authorised to speak publicly, was referring to the White House dinner on Monday night between Trump and Netanyahu.
A second Middle Eastern diplomatic source agreed that the American pressure on Israel would be intense.
Benjamin Netanyahu gave Donald Trump a letter saying he had nominated him for a Nobel Peace Prize. Pic: AP
Netanyahu arrived in Washington DC in the early hours of Monday morning and held meetings on Monday with Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy, and Marco Rubio, the secretary of state and national security adviser.
The Israeli prime minister plans to be in Washington until Thursday with meetings on Capitol Hill on Tuesday.
Trump has made clear his desire to bring the Gaza conflict to an end.
However, he has never articulated how a lasting peace, which would satisfy both the Israelis and Palestinians, could be achieved.
His varying comments about ownership of Gaza, moving Palestinians out of the territory and permanent resettlement, have presented a confusing policy.
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‘Israel has shifted towards economy of genocide’
Situation for Palestinians worse than ever
Over the coming days, we will see the extent to which Trump demands that Netanyahu accepts the current Gaza ceasefire deal, even if it falls short of Israel’s war aims – the elimination of Hamas.
The strategic objective to permanently remove Hamas seems always to have been impossible. Hamas as an entity was the extreme consequence of the Israeli occupation.
The Palestinians’ challenge has not gone away, and the situation for Palestinians now is worse than it has ever been in Gaza and also the West Bank. It is not clear how Trump plans to square that circle.
Read more:
Explainer – What is the possible Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal?
Israeli soldier describes arbitrary killing of civilians in Gaza
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‘Some Israeli commanders can decide to do war crimes’
Trump’s oft-repeated desire to “stop the killing” is sincere. Those close to him often emphasise this. He is also looking to cement his legacy as a peacemaker. He genuinely craves the Nobel Peace Prize.
In this context, the complexities of conflicts – in Ukraine or Gaza – are often of secondary importance to the president.
If Netanyahu can be persuaded to end the war, what would he need?
The hostages back – for sure. That would require agreement from Hamas. They would only agree to this if they have guarantees on Gaza’s future and their own future. More circles to square.
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Trump 100: We answer your questions
Was White House dinner a key moment?
The Monday night dinner could have been a key moment for the Middle East. Two powerful men in the Blue Room of the White House, deciding the direction of the region.
Will it be seen as the moment the region was remoulded? But to whose benefit?
Trump is a dealmaker with an eye on the prize. But Netanyahu is a political master; they don’t call him “the magician” for nothing.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
Trump makes decisions instinctively. He can shift position quickly and often listens to the last person in the room. Right now – that person is Netanyahu.
Gaza is one part of a jigsaw of challenges, which could become opportunities.
Diplomatic normalisation between Israel and the Arab world is a prize for Trump and could genuinely secure him the Nobel Peace Prize.
But without the Gaza piece, the jigsaw is incomplete.
World
IDF presence in Gaza ‘only issue’ still to be resolved in push for Israel-Hamas ceasefire, Sky News understands
Only one issue remains unresolved in the push to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza, according to Sky sources.
Intense negotiations are taking place in Qatar in parallel with key talks in Washington between US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Two sources with direct knowledge of the negotiations have told Sky News that disagreement between Israel and Hamas remains on the status and presence of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) inside Gaza.
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Gaza ceasefire deal in progress
The two sides have bridged significant differences on several other issues, including the process of delivering humanitarian aid and Hamas’s demand that the US guarantees to ensure Israel doesn’t unilaterally resume the war when the ceasefire expires in 60 days.
On the issue of humanitarian aid, Sky News understands that a third party that neither Hamas nor Israel has control over will be used in areas from which the IDF withdraws.
Benjamin Netanyahu briefed reporters on Capitol Hill about the talks on Tuesday. Pic: AP
This means that the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) – jointly run by an American organisation and Israel – will not be able to operate anywhere where the IDF is not deployed. It will limit GHF expansion plans.
It is believed the United Nations or other recognised humanitarian organisations will adopt a greater role.
On the issue of a US guarantee to prevent Israel restarting the war, Sky News understands that a message was passed to Hamas by Dr Bishara Bahbah, a Palestinian American who has emerged as a key back channel in the negotiations.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
Read more from Sky News:
Trump puts pressure on Netanyahu
Netanyahu backs Trump for peace prize
Potential Gaza deal explained
The message appears to have been enough to convince Hamas that President Trump will prevent Israel from restarting the conflict.
However, there is no sense from any of the developments over the course of the past day about what the future of Gaza looks like longer-term.
Final challenge is huge
The last remaining disagreement is, predictably, the trickiest to bridge.
Israel’s central war aim, beyond the return of the hostages, is the total elimination of Hamas as a military and political organisation. The withdrawal of the IDF, partial or total, could allow Hamas to regroup.
One way to overcome this would be to provide wider guarantees of clear deliverable pathways to a viable future for Palestinians.
But there is no sense from the negotiations of any longer-term commitments on this issue.
Two key blocks have been resolved over the past 24 hours but the final challenge is huge.
The conflict in Gaza erupted when Hamas attacked southern Israel in October 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli figures. Some 20 hostages are believed to remain alive in Gaza.
Israel has killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
World
‘Widespread sexual violence’ took place during Hamas’s 7 October attacks, report by Israeli experts says
A newly released report led by Israeli legal and gender experts presents detailed evidence alleging “widespread and systematic” sexual violence during the Hamas-led terror attack on 7 October.
Warning: This story contains descriptions of rape and sexual violence
The findings, published by the Dinah Project, argue that these acts amount to conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV), and assert that “Hamas used sexual violence as a tactical weapon of war”.
The report draws on 18 months of investigation and is based on survivor testimonies, eyewitness accounts, and interviews with first responders, morgue personnel and healthcare professionals.
According to the Dinah Project, the documented patterns – such as forced nudity, gang rapes, genital mutilation, and threats of forced marriage – indicate a deliberate and coordinated use of sexual violence by Hamas operatives during the attack.
Reported incidents span at least six locations, including the Nova music festival, and several kibbutzim in southern Israel.
A destroyed car near the police station in Sderot, following the 7 October attacks by Hamas. Pic: AP
One section of the report describes victims “found fully or partially naked from the waist down, with their hands tied behind their backs and/or to structures such as trees and poles, and shot”.
At the Nova music festival and surrounding areas, the investigators found “reasonable grounds to believe” that multiple women were raped or gang-raped before being killed.
The report’s findings are consistent with earlier investigations by the United Nations and the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Read more:
What is the possible Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal?
Israeli soldier describes arbitrary killing of civilians in Gaza
The UN’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict previously concluded that there were “reasonable grounds to believe” CRSV took place during the attack.
Destroyed vehicles near the grounds of the Supernova electronic music festival. Pic: AP
Significantly, the Dinah Project urges the international community to officially recognise the use of sexual violence by Hamas as a deliberate strategy of war and calls on the United Nations to add Hamas to its list of parties responsible for conflict-related sexual violence.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
The nature and scale of sexual violence on 7 October have been a subject of intense controversy, with some accusing parties of weaponising the narrative for political ends.
This report seeks to confront what its authors call “denial, misinformation, and global silence,” and to provide justice for the victims.
Hamas has denied that its fighters have used sexual violence and mistreated female hostages.
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