Israeli researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov, kidnapped in Baghdad last year by the Shiite militia Kataib Hezbollah, has been freed and is now at the U.S. Embassy in Iraq, President Donald Trump announced Tuesday on Truth Social.
“I am pleased to report that Elizabeth Tsurkov, a Princeton student, whose sister is an American citizen, was just released … and is now safely in the American Embassy in Iraq after being tortured for many months,” Trump wrote. He used the announcement to renew pressure on Hamas, demanding: “HAMAS, RELEASE THE HOSTAGES, NOW!”
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani confirmed the release, crediting Iraqi security services and stressing that Baghdad “will not allow anyone to harm the reputation of Iraq and the Iraqis.”
Tsurkov, 38, holds both Israeli and Russian citizenship and was in Iraq for her doctoral research at Princeton when she was abducted in March 2023. Nearly a year later, a video surfaced of her speaking in Hebrew under duress, reciting confessions to working for the CIA and Mossad. A vocal critic of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, she had previously warned against trading concessions for her release.
Her family said Tuesday they were “overjoyed.” In a statement, her sister Emma thanked Trump, U.S. hostage envoy Adam Boehler, and embassy staff in Baghdad: “If Adam hadn’t made my sister’s return a personal mission, I don’t know where we would be today.”
Tsurkov, the daughter of Soviet Jewish dissidents who immigrated to Israel in the 1980s, has spent much of her academic career researching conflict in the Middle East. She previously conducted fieldwork in Syria, Jordan, and Turkey, and was pursuing a Princeton Ph.D. when she traveled to Iraq.
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