Israeli-Russian hostage Tsurkov is alive and Iraq is working on her release, Iraqi FM to Axios

She has been held by the Shiite militia Kataib Hezbollah since March 2023.

By REUTERS, JERUSALEM POST STAFF JANUARY 23, 2025 16:27 Updated: JANUARY 23, 2025 16:40

Members of the Palestinian Prisoners Committee hold a rally outside the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) office in Gaza City on July 17, 2023, demanding the Iraqi government to include Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails in the exchange for Israeli-Russian academic Elizabeth Tsurk (photo credit: Majdi Fathi/NurPho)

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."

A Hezbollah flag and a poster depicting Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah are pictured along a street, near Sidon, Lebanon July 7, 2020 (credit: REUTERS/ALI HASHISHO)

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.