A 21-year-old Yazidi woman kidnapped by Islamic State militants in Iraq a decade ago has been freed from Gaza in a secret operation. Israeli strikes cut off Lebanon's main border crossing with Syria as intense Israeli attacks on Beirut's southern suburbs are thought to be targeting Hezbollah’s heir apparent. Reuters has reviewed email exchanges between senior U.S. administration officials in the days after the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel which show alarm that a rising death toll in Gaza could violate international law. And a Houthi email campaign indicates the group is casting their net wider and targeting Greek merchant ships in the Red Sea, despite a lack of connection to Israel.
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Today, a Yazidi woman captured by Islamic State in Iraq 10 years ago is freed from Gaza. An Israeli strike closes off the main border crossing into Syria. A Reuters review of emails just days after the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel reveals early U.S. concerns over Israel's Gaza offensive. And the Houthis ramp up threats to ships in the Red Sea ahead of the busy holiday shipping season. It's Friday, October 4th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes every weekday. I'm Christopher Wall Jasper in Chicago. And I'm Tara Oakes in Liverpool. A 21-year-old woman kidnapped by Islamic State militants in Iraq a decade ago has been freed from Gaza in a secret operation that involved Israel, the United States, and Iraq. The woman is a member of the ancient Yazidi religious minority, mostly found in Iraq and Syria, which saw more than 5,000 members killed and thousands more kidnapped by IS. She's been freed after more than four months of efforts. Tae Morizari has the story. So how did she end up in Gaza? We know that she was kidnapped by Islamic State more than a decade ago. She was forced into slavery. What U.S. and Iraqi officials tell me is that she was smuggled from there to Gaza, trafficked to Gaza. We still don't know exactly how she got there. And this operation involved Israel, the U.S. and Iraq, but Israel and Iraq don't have diplomatic ties. So how did that work? Yes, indeed. And there's a lot of hostility between Iraq and Israel. Iraqi officials were in contact with this woman. They've been in contact with her for several months, and they were trying to get her out of Gaza. Now, Israel has control of Gaza at this point and really all the entry and exit points. And so I think Iraqi officials realized at some point that if they wanted to get her out, they would have to seek help. So the Iraqis go to the Americans, and then the Americans go to the Israelis. And then we see that the Israelis really lead this operation in Gaza and extract her from there. She has flown back to Iraq, where she is now very thankfully with her family. An Israeli airstrike on Lebanon's Massnaar border with Syria has cut off a road used by hundreds of thousands to flee the country. That's according to the Lebanese Transport Minister. An IDF spokesperson took two ex to accuse Hezbollah of using the crossing to transport military equipment into Lebanon. And Beirut's southern suburb of Dahia came under renewed strikes overnight after Israel ordered people to leave their homes in some spots. Axios reporting those air raids are targeting Hezbollah official Hashem Safiyadin in an underground bunker. He's a rumoured successor of assassinated leader Hassan Nasrallah. His fate remains unclear, and the Israeli military has not commented. U.S. President Joe Biden says he does not believe there is going to be an all-out war in the Middle East. Those comments helped calm oil markets after an earlier off the cuff remark to reporters sent prices soaring. Biden saying earlier that the U.S. was discussing with Israel its options for responding to Tehran's assault, which included Israel's striking Iran's oil facilities. Ronald Krimans has more. As the Gaza war nears its first anniversary and the Middle East teeters on the brink of a wider conflict, Reuters has reviewed email exchanges between senior U.S. administration officials just days after the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel. They show alarm early on in the State Department that a rising death toll in Gaza could violate international law. Deputy foreign policy editor Humera Palmuk is in Washington, D.C., and has the story. The emails reflected a scramble inside the Biden administration. There were three main themes. First one was on U.S. messaging, second one was on humanitarian response, and Israel's risk of violating international humanitarian law. And the third one was about Israel asking the United States to expedite certain weapons sales. And the first one on messaging a senior State Department official is saying is two one-sided, and it needs to shift to include the Palestinian suffering. In second one, in the humanitarian one, it kicks off with an email from a senior Pentagon official. This person is conveying a really stark warning from international committee of the Red Cross, and ICRC is basically saying by ordering more than a million Palestinians to evacuate to South on the early days, Israel might be risking committing war crimes. And this kicks off a discussion about how the United States can help put in humanitarian structures, how it can help soon to be displaced Palestinians. They basically discuss whether they can ask Israeli government to slow down the upcoming offensive. In response to questions about the emails, the White House said the U.S. had been leading international efforts to get humanitarian aid into Gaza and that it would continue to be a top priority. An Israeli embassy spokesperson rejected accusations that Israel had violated international law. Israel has said it has a right to defend its territory and its citizens, and is a democracy that adheres to international law. The International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva says it constantly works with parties to armed conflicts and those who have influence with them to increase the respect for the laws of war in order to prevent civilian suffering. It says it considers such conversations to be strictly confidential. Elon Musk has weekend plans. The billionaire heads to Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday to attend Donald Trump's rally. The rally will mark the former president's return to the town where he survived an assassination attempt in July. Musk's post on X says, "I will be there to support." U.S. dock workers and port operators have reached a tentative deal that ends a shipping shutdown across the East and Gulf coasts. The deal reportedly includes a roughly 62 percent raise over six years, bumping the average dock worker wage to around $63 an hour, up from $39. On a warm spring night in Athens, shortly before midnight, a senior executive at a Greek shipping company noticed an unusual email land in his personal inbox. The message, warning that one of the company's vessels travelling through the Red Sea was at risk of being attacked by Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthi militia. It is a sign that the Houthis are casting their net wider and targeting further afield. In this case, Greek merchant ships with little or no connection to Israel. Bené Maltezu has been reporting on the warnings. This is a new phase of warnings by Houthi militants who have been targeting ships since November, 2023. They are now sending emails to companies saying that if one of their vessels is violating the ban criteria they have set and enter, for instance, support in Israel, then the whole fleet of that company would be targeted and attacked. They are trying to shrink traffic that goes through the Red Sea in a form of retaliation for the war in Gaza, so the Houthi militants are Iran aligned, and this is a psychological war actually against their shipping companies. What's the impact being so far for shipping companies? As one of our sources said, it is actually deterring them from crossing the Red Sea. Some of them have stopped the journeys. Some others have stopped business with Israel. And we've also had this voice message right, also threatening shipping companies. What do we know about that message? If you don't utter a course, is this why you will be attacked? So this was a Houthi message broadcast to ships in the Red Sea in September, telling ships that if they have no connection to an Israeli enemy, then they would be safe, otherwise they would be attacked. And what have the Houthis said about all this? They haven't commented on that saying that this is military classified information, so they decline to comment on the emails or any other message they've sent to shipping companies. Now something from here in Liverpool with our recommended read. An electric guitar played by George Harrison in the early days of the Beatles will go up the sale at an auction next month, or it could be sold for more than $800,000. Yeah, the guitar might generally weep, but so does my bank balance at the thought. But if you've got your mind set on it, there's a link to the story in the pod description. And for more on any of today's stories, check out Reuters.com or The Reuters App. To never miss an episode, subscribe on your favorite podcast player. We'll be back tomorrow with our Daily Headline Show. [MUSIC]
