A former IDF female soldier with dual Turkish-Israeli citizenship was quietly rescued from Turkey after she was detained last week while visiting her parents, Channel 12 News reported on Wednesday evening.

The young woman, who had recently been discharged from the IDF, flew to Istanbul to visit her parents, blissfully unaware that she was walking into a diplomatic and legal nightmare rather than an enjoyable family reunion.

Upon her arrival, extremist Islamist organizations in Ankara launched a targeted social media campaign calling for her arrest due to her IDF service. They exposed her personal details and photos and submitted a request to the authorities to prevent her from leaving the country and to imprison her.

Turkish authorities succumbed to public pressure and took her into custody on the charge of “serving in a foreign army.” After being interrogated for several hours, she was placed under house arrest.

With no formal Israeli diplomatic presence in Turkey, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar turned to Washington, which applied heavy pressure on Ankara to secure her release. The rescue operation was carried out “under the radar,” and she was flown home via a third country under tight Israeli security arrangements.

Channel 12 noted that although the incident ended with the young woman’s return to Israel, the troubling case raises serious questions about the security of 50,000 IDF reservists and citizens and dual nationals who could face similar risks abroad and find themselves at the mercy of antisemitic judicial systems.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)