SOHR Demands Immediate Solution to ‘Al-Hol Mini-State’ Crisis  

The Syrian Democratic Forces at one of the entrances to al-Hol camp (EPA)
The Syrian Democratic Forces at one of the entrances to al-Hol camp (EPA)
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SOHR Demands Immediate Solution to ‘Al-Hol Mini-State’ Crisis  

The Syrian Democratic Forces at one of the entrances to al-Hol camp (EPA)
The Syrian Democratic Forces at one of the entrances to al-Hol camp (EPA)

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) has renewed its appeal to the international community to find an immediate and lasting solution to al-Hol’s crisis and put a serious plan for rehabilitating the camp’s children and women.

The war monitor published a report on its website stating that the successive incidents at the camp, which is located in the far southeast region of al-Hasakah, are now unrefuted evidence of the chaos recently unleashed by ISIS in Syria.

The refugee camp has become more like a “mini-state” hosting ISIS-affiliated members and families, the report stressed, noting that most countries continue to ignore this crisis to avoid repatriating their unwelcome citizens who joined the “notorious” organization.

Chaos and lack of security are prevalent within the camp, turning it into a “ticking bomb” that cannot be ignored. 

SOHR pointed out that no murder crimes were committed by ISIS members in the camp during October 2022. It attributed this improvement in the security situation to the completion of the second phase of the Operation Humanity and Security on Sep. 17.  

The Kurdish Internal Security Forces (Asayish) launched the operation in the overcrowded refugee camp on August 25, in light of the increase in acts of murder and violence. 

Meanwhile, a new batch of Iraqi families left the camp in coordination between the Autonomous Administration and the Iraqi government.  

On Oct.18, 161 Iraqi families, including 659 people, left for Iraq, while the government refused to repatriate more nationals.  

No Syrian families were evacuated from the camp in October, but many foreign children and women were repatriated to their countries. 

On Oct. 20, the Department of Foreign Relations handed over 38 Russian children to the Russian president’s Commission for Child Rights.

This step was made after both parties signed an official document in the presence of al-Hol’s administration in the headquarters of the Autonomous Administration’s Department of Foreign Relations in Qamishli city, north of al-Hasakah. 

It came in light of the coordination between the Department of Foreign Relations in north and east Syria and Russia to repatriate children detained in camps to their countries. 

On October 26, the Department of Foreign Relations handed two Canadian children and two women of ISIS families to a Canadian delegation after signing an official document between both parties. 

Since early 2022, SOHR has documented 28 murders in the camp, which left 30 people dead, eight of whom are Iraqi refugees, including two women, 12 Syrian people, including eight women, eight unidentified women, a medic and an unidentified man. 



Israeli Army Kills Palestinian Man in West Bank Raid

Flowers are placed on the body of a 54-year-old Palestinian man killed by Israeli forces during a raid, as people mourn over him at a hospital in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, September 15, 2026. (Reuters)
Flowers are placed on the body of a 54-year-old Palestinian man killed by Israeli forces during a raid, as people mourn over him at a hospital in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, September 15, 2026. (Reuters)
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Israeli Army Kills Palestinian Man in West Bank Raid

Flowers are placed on the body of a 54-year-old Palestinian man killed by Israeli forces during a raid, as people mourn over him at a hospital in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, September 15, 2026. (Reuters)
Flowers are placed on the body of a 54-year-old Palestinian man killed by Israeli forces during a raid, as people mourn over him at a hospital in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, September 15, 2026. (Reuters)

Israel's military shot and killed a Palestinian man during a raid in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, Palestinian health officials said, while the army said it fired at someone who tried to seize a soldier's weapon.

The Palestinian health ministry announced the death of 54-year-old Ziad Mohammad Jaber by "Israeli army gunfire in Umm al-Sharayet, in the city of Al-Bireh", near Ramallah in the central West Bank.

In the early hours of Tuesday, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said its crews were treating someone who sustained "a critical live-fire gunshot wound to the abdomen and thigh" during a military raid in Umm al-Sharayet.

It said the casualty was being transferred to hospital.

When contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said troops were carrying out "counterterrorism activity" in the area overnight when "a terrorist attempted to seize a weapon from one of the soldiers".

"The soldier responded by firing towards the terrorist. A hit was identified," it added.

Jaber's brother, Ramadan Mohammad Jaber, told AFP that the military raided his home at around 4 am (0100 GMT) after blowing up the front door.

He said soldiers handcuffed him and held him with his daughter in a room before arresting his son.

He added that soldiers had also blown up the door of the adjacent apartment where his brother lived.

"I heard him screaming but I did not hear the sound of gunfire," he said, adding that his brother "was left bleeding in the apartment for about an hour and a half before the army allowed ambulance crews to take him to the hospital".

A spokesperson for the Palestinian health ministry confirmed that Jaber was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital.

The West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967, has seen a surge in violence since the outbreak of war in the Gaza Strip following Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

At least 1,109 Palestinians, including a number of gunmen, have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers, according to an AFP tally based on Palestinian official figures.

Settler attacks against Palestinians have soared, often with little or no legal consequence.

At least 48 Israelis, both civilians and security forces, have been killed in the West Bank in attacks carried out by Palestinians or during clashes with Israeli forces, according to Israeli official figures.


UN Urges Access for International Investigators to Gaza After Bodies Found

Men walk through rubble at the Bureij camp for Palestinian refugees in the central Gaza Strip on September 14, 2026. (AFP)
Men walk through rubble at the Bureij camp for Palestinian refugees in the central Gaza Strip on September 14, 2026. (AFP)
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UN Urges Access for International Investigators to Gaza After Bodies Found

Men walk through rubble at the Bureij camp for Palestinian refugees in the central Gaza Strip on September 14, 2026. (AFP)
Men walk through rubble at the Bureij camp for Palestinian refugees in the central Gaza Strip on September 14, 2026. (AFP)

The United Nations called Tuesday for international investigators to be granted to access to all of Gaza "to assist with evidence-gathering" as hundreds of bodies are pulled from the rubble.

The ongoing recovery of extensive human remains in Gaza, mostly of women and children, nearly three years after Israel heavily bombed their homes, highlights the possibility that war crimes have been committed, the UN warned.

"The remains of what appears to be entire families are now being unearthed at locations that were pulverized by Israeli attacks," UN rights chief Volker Turk pointed out in a statement.

"I worry the remains recovered so far may only be the tip of the iceberg," he said, pointing to how "much of Gaza has been flattened by Israeli bombing or demolition and clearing by heavy machinery and explosives".

"Today, many areas in Gaza where the Israeli military is deployed continue to be levelled by bulldozers with no respect for the dead under the rubble," he lamented.

The rights office said it was critical that evidence of violations, including at destroyed sites, calling for "international investigators to be allowed into all parts of Gaza to assist with evidence-gathering".

It pointed out that the Palestinian Civil Defense had reported that more than 630 bodies and other human remains had been recovered from beneath destroyed buildings across Gaza since last November.

"It estimates the total number of missing under the rubble at over 8,000," it said.

Turk insisted that "every feasible effort must be taken to document and identify these victims, preserve forensic information and biological samples, record their burial locations and inform their families".

"The discovery of extensive remains under the rubble in Gaza City resurfaces (the) concerns of war crimes and other atrocity crimes," he warned.

Israel's full-scale war on Gaza, which began after a Hamas attack inside Israel on October 7, 2023, reduced much of the Palestinian territory to rubble.

The relentless Israeli bombardment and ground offensive has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians, including more than 1,350 since a ceasefire agreed last October, according to Gaza's health ministry, which is under Hamas authority.

Hamas's October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.


Fuel Shortage in Yemen Hampers Migrants Fleeing Conflict and Seeking Safety in Djibouti

This handout picture taken and released by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Djibouti shows refugees from Yemen fleeing fighting between government forces and Iran-backed Houthi militants as they arrive at a Djibouti Coast Guard post in Khor Angar on September 13, 2026. (Handout / IOM Djibouti / AFP)
This handout picture taken and released by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Djibouti shows refugees from Yemen fleeing fighting between government forces and Iran-backed Houthi militants as they arrive at a Djibouti Coast Guard post in Khor Angar on September 13, 2026. (Handout / IOM Djibouti / AFP)
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Fuel Shortage in Yemen Hampers Migrants Fleeing Conflict and Seeking Safety in Djibouti

This handout picture taken and released by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Djibouti shows refugees from Yemen fleeing fighting between government forces and Iran-backed Houthi militants as they arrive at a Djibouti Coast Guard post in Khor Angar on September 13, 2026. (Handout / IOM Djibouti / AFP)
This handout picture taken and released by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Djibouti shows refugees from Yemen fleeing fighting between government forces and Iran-backed Houthi militants as they arrive at a Djibouti Coast Guard post in Khor Angar on September 13, 2026. (Handout / IOM Djibouti / AFP)

A fuel shortage in Yemen is hampering the movement of people fleeing the country’s escalating fighting and seeking safety across the Red Sea in Djibouti, with the UN migration agency warning that more Yemenis are ready to make the crossing by boat.

More than 2,000 Yemenis are currently in Djibouti, where the country's government and the International Organization for Migration are providing food and shelter.

Yemen’s legitimate government has been battling the Iranian-backed Houthi militants for 12 years. The recent escalation has ended a ceasefire that had largely stopped civil war across Yemen since 2022. The Houthis kept to the sidelines during the initial, heavy phase of the Iran war, but in July they resumed attacks on Saudi Arabia and escalated attacks in Yemen.

Now the number of people from Yemen fleeing the fighting is soaring, with nearly 94,000 people displaced in the country.

IOM Regional Director for East and Southern Africa Frantz Celestin told The Associated Press on Monday that arrivals had slowed because of the fuel shortage, but warned that more people were expected to make the dangerous crossing.

“We expect more to come. What we were told is that there are a lot of people who are willing and ready to come. They simply don’t have fuel to make the journey,” Celestin said. “There’s a fuel shortage in Yemen that may explain the lull that we’ve seen today.”

The prospect of more arrivals is raising concerns that Djibouti, the small Horn of Africa nation, could struggle to accommodate the influx.

“When you have that many people come in a short amount of time, it’s bound to overwhelm the system,” Celestin said. “But so far, they (Djibouti) are managing it quite well. But there may be a time, if they continue to come, where they may overwhelm the capacity of the country to house and accommodate all of them.”

Djiboutian Finance Minister Ilyas M. Dawaleh said on X that the situation was “becoming increasingly difficult for our country, despite our unwavering commitment to humanitarian assistance.”

“We cannot allow those who have sought refuge among us to suffer. I am proud of my fellow Djiboutians for their collective mobilization and their remarkable solidarity with our Yemeni brothers and sisters,” he wrote.

Dawaleh also praised residents of Obock, a coastal town in northern Djibouti that has been on the front line of the humanitarian response.

The IOM's Celestin said the arrivals were putting additional pressure on communities and called for more international support, including additional tents and medical services.

Djibouti sits across the Bab al-Mandeb Strait from Yemen, making it one of the closest places of refuge for Yemenis fleeing the conflict.