UN to End in 1 Year its Probe of ISIS Extremists in Iraq

FILE - Kurdish forces patrol al-Hol camp, which houses families of members of the ISIS group in Hasakah province, Syria, on April 19, 2023. I (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad, File)
FILE - Kurdish forces patrol al-Hol camp, which houses families of members of the ISIS group in Hasakah province, Syria, on April 19, 2023. I (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad, File)
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UN to End in 1 Year its Probe of ISIS Extremists in Iraq

FILE - Kurdish forces patrol al-Hol camp, which houses families of members of the ISIS group in Hasakah province, Syria, on April 19, 2023. I (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad, File)
FILE - Kurdish forces patrol al-Hol camp, which houses families of members of the ISIS group in Hasakah province, Syria, on April 19, 2023. I (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad, File)

The Security Council on Friday voted unanimously to end, a year from now, a UN probe into activities of ISIS extremists in Iraq. The vote came at the request of the Iraqi government.

The UK-sponsored resolution noted that Baghdad also asked that UN investigators hand over evidence they have gathered so far to the government, so that Iraqi authorities can pursue ISIS members’ accountability, as well as that of those who assisted and financed “this terrorist organization.”

The Security Council in September 2017 set up the investigative team — also at Iraq’s request — to collect evidence against ISIS members to be used in trials.

The AP quoted Christian Ritscher, the head of the team, telling the council in June that its investigators were compiling evidence on the development and use of chemical weapons by ISIS extremists and advancing their documentation on the militant group’s gender-based violence and crimes against children, Sunni and Shiite Muslims, Christians and Yazidis.

ISIS seized about a third of Iraq in 2014, along with a large swath of territory in Syria, and declared a self-styled caliphate across the area. It was declared defeated in Iraq in 2017 following a three-year battle. However, ISIS sleeper cells continue to stage attacks to this day in both Iraq and Syria.

Britain’s UN Ambassador Barbara Woodward told the council that the UN team has supported the excavation of mass graves, facilitated the return of remains to the families of victims, and worked closely with Iraqi judges and prosecutors, particularly on collecting evidence.

“It has provided survivors, including of sexual and gender-based violence, with opportunities to provide testimony safely with their rights fully respected,” she said. “And it has enabled psychosocial treatment in partnership with Iraq’s Ministry of Health, providing real impact for survivors.”

The resolution asks Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to submit a report by Jan. 15 on recommendations to implement Iraq’s request for evidence obtained by the UN team. The Security Council also asks that the team, with approval of Iraq's government, determine how evidence can be shared with other countries and to inform Baghdad about any evidence already given to third countries.

Woodward said Britain will work with the Iraqi government to continue the UN team's “legacy, both in Iraq and around the world.”

On Wednesday, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nadia Murad, a Yazidi who was taken by ISIS militants and became a sexual slave, and her high-profile human rights lawyer, Amal Clooney, issued a statement highlighting their support for the team's mission and expressing concern that its mandate might not be renewed.

They said in a joint statement that evidence and testimonies gathered by the team “demonstrated the depth" of ISIS brutality — not only against the Yazidis but also against other minorities.

Murad and Clooney appealed for the extension of the team's mandate to preserve evidence for use in future criminal proceedings and to build “Iraq’s capacity in international crimes investigations and prosecutions.”



Hundreds of Thousands Flee as Israel Seizes Rafah in New Gaza 'Security Zone'

A youth rides a bicycle as people commute along the al-Rashid road, the only route linking the northern and southern parts of the Palestinian territory, on April 2, 2025. (Photo by Bashar TALEB / AFP)
A youth rides a bicycle as people commute along the al-Rashid road, the only route linking the northern and southern parts of the Palestinian territory, on April 2, 2025. (Photo by Bashar TALEB / AFP)
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Hundreds of Thousands Flee as Israel Seizes Rafah in New Gaza 'Security Zone'

A youth rides a bicycle as people commute along the al-Rashid road, the only route linking the northern and southern parts of the Palestinian territory, on April 2, 2025. (Photo by Bashar TALEB / AFP)
A youth rides a bicycle as people commute along the al-Rashid road, the only route linking the northern and southern parts of the Palestinian territory, on April 2, 2025. (Photo by Bashar TALEB / AFP)

Hundreds of thousands of fleeing Gazans sought shelter on Thursday in one of the biggest mass displacements of the war, as Israeli forces advanced into the ruins of the city of Rafah, part of a newly announced "security zone" they intend to seize.

A day after declaring their intention to capture large swathes of the crowded enclave, Israeli force pushed into the city on Gaza's southern edge which had served as a last refuge for people fleeing other areas for much of the war, reported Reuters.

Gaza's health ministry reported at least 97 people killed in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours, including at least 20 killed in an airstrike around dawn in Shejaia suburb of Gaza City.

Rafah "is gone, it is being wiped out," a father of seven among the hundreds of thousands who had fled from Rafah to neighboring Khan Younis, told Reuters via a chat app.

"They are knocking down what is left standing of houses and property," said the man who declined to be identified for fear of repercussions.

After a strike killed several people in Khan Younis, Adel Abu Fakher was checking the damage to his tent.

"Is anything left for us? There’s nothing left for us. We’re being killed while asleep," he said.

The assault to capture Rafah is a major escalation in the war, which Israel restarted last month after effectively abandoning a ceasefire in place since January.

GAZANS FEAR PERMANENT DEPOPULATION

Israel has not spelled out its longterm aims for the security zone its troops are now seizing. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayahu said troops were taking an area he called the "Morag Axis", a reference to an abandoned former Israeli settlement once located between Rafah on Gaza's southern edge and the adjacent main southern city Khan Younis.

Gazans who had returned to homes in the ruins during the ceasefire have now been ordered to flee communities on the northern and southern edges of the strip.

They fear that Israel's intention is to depopulate those areas indefinitely, leaving many hundreds of thousands of people permanently homeless in one of the poorest and most crowded territories on earth. The security zone includes some of Gaza's last agricultural land and critical water infrastructure.

Since the first phase of the ceasefire expired at the start of March with no agreement to prolong it, Israel has imposed a total blockade on all goods reaching Gaza's 2.3 million residents, recreating what international organizations describe as a humanitarian catastrophe after weeks of relative calm.

Israel's stated goal since the start of the war has been the destruction of the Hamas group which ran Gaza for nearly two decades and led the attack on Israeli communities in October 2023 that precipitated the war.

But with no effort made to establish an alternative administration, Hamas-led police returned to the streets during the ceasefire. Fighters still hold 59 dead and living hostages which Israel says must be handed over to extend the truce; Hamas says it will free them only under a deal that ends the war.

Israeli leaders say they have been encouraged by signs of protest in Gaza against Hamas, with hundreds of people demonstrating in north Gaza's Beit Lahiya on Wednesday opposing the war and demanding Hamas quit power. Hamas calls the protesters collaborators and says Israel is behind them.

The war began with a Hamas attack on Israeli communities on October 7, 2023 with gunmen killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages according to Israeli tallies. Israel's campaign has so far killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, Gaza health authorities say.

Rafah residents said most of the local population had followed Israel's order to leave, as Israeli strikes toppled buildings there. But a strike on the main road between Khan Younis and Rafah stopped most movement between the two cities.

Movement of people and traffic along the western coastal road near Morag was also limited by bombardment, said residents.

"Others stayed because they don't know where to go, or got fed up of being displaced several times. We are afraid they might be killed or at best detained," said Basem, a resident of Rafah who declined to give a second name.

Markets have emptied and prices for basic necessities have soared under Israel's total blockade of food, medicine and fuel.

The Palestinian Health Ministry, which is based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank but has nominal authority over hospitals in Gaza, said Gaza's entire healthcare system was at risk of collapse.