Israeli-Russian Princeton researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov, who is being held hostage by an Iraqi militia, is alive and the Iraqi prime minister is working on her release, Iraqi foreign minister Fouad Hussein told Axios reporter Barak Ravid on Thursday.
Walla reported that Israel’s coordinator of for missing and kidnapped citizens, Gal Hirsch, met a few days ago with the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross and asked that the Red Cross make efforts to visit Tsurkov and check on her medical condition.
Tsurkov, who researches the Middle East, traveled to Iraq on her Russian passport for the purpose of doctoral dissertation and academic research on behalf of Princeton University in the United States, N12 reported.
She has been held by the Shiite militia Kataib Hezbollah since March 2023.
A few hours before she was kidnapped, she spoke to her family, who said: “We talked the day before the kidnapping, a completely normal and standard conversation about the interviews she had done, about what was left of her.”
“We are pleased to hear that the Iraqi government acknowledges what we already knew: Elizabeth is alive and being held captive in Iraq by Kataib Hezbollah,” Tsurkov’s family was cited as saying by Walla in response to the Thursday report.
“We hope the new American administration will demonstrate resolve and pressure the Iraqi prime minister to fulfill his promise and secure Elizabeth’s release,” the family added.
Entry to Iraq
It is illegal for Israelis to enter enemy states such as Iraq, even with a foreign passport. An Israeli source said in 2023 that the government of Israel has long warned against such travel.
In September 2023, Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said in an interview with the New York Times that the government had not identified who was responsible.
“The incident damages the reputation of Iraq’s stability and the capability of our security agencies,” he said.
