First western female fighter against ISIS returns to Israel

Monday, July 13, 2015 |  Israel Today Staff

Gill Rosenberg, a Canadian - Israeli, returned to Israel after spending the last 8 months on the front lines against ISIS in Syria and Iraq with Kurdish fighters.

In November 2014 it was reported that Rosenberg had joined the Kurdish forces fighting ISIS in Syria. She flew via Jordan to Erbil in Kurdish controlled northern Iraq where she assumed her combat role.

A few weeks later media reports stated that she had been abducted by ISIS being the first western female combatant having been abducted. Within a matter of days the reports of her abduction were put to rest with reports of a post on her FaceBook page that she was alive and well.

After seeing action in Syria Rosenberg moved to Iraq where she continued in her combat role util she left Iraq for Paris about 10 days ago.

She arrived in Israel on Sunday where she was briefly detained by Israel's General Security Services (Shin Bet) and interrogated before being released.

"It's good to be home. I'm here for now, and don’t plan on going back there anytime soon," she said.

Rosenberg spoke of her difficulty witnessing the humanitarian crisis in the areas that she found herself, saying, "It's a country at war. There are millions of refugees scattered across the country, most of them women and children."

Rosenberg reportedly said that that she left the area for political reasons, saying that peoples attitudes towards the US and Israel and increasing Iranian advances in the area warranted her departure.

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