Exclusive - Half of 40,000 Iraqis Living in al-Hol Camp Long to Return Home

Women walk through al-Hol displacement camp in Hasakah province, Syria, April 1, 2019. (Reuters)
Women walk through al-Hol displacement camp in Hasakah province, Syria, April 1, 2019. (Reuters)
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Exclusive - Half of 40,000 Iraqis Living in al-Hol Camp Long to Return Home

Women walk through al-Hol displacement camp in Hasakah province, Syria, April 1, 2019. (Reuters)
Women walk through al-Hol displacement camp in Hasakah province, Syria, April 1, 2019. (Reuters)

The al-Hol camp in northeastern-most point in Syria is home to thousands of refugees, the majority of whom are Iraqi women and children. Some came there willingly, while a few sought refuge after fleeing their homeland when the ISIS extremist group swept through the region. Others were forced to flee to the camp when the pro-Iran Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in Iraq fought back against the terror group.

Al-Hol also houses the families of ISIS members. These families make up the majority of the residents, who came to the camp after the group lost its territories in Iraq and Syria in spring 2019. Iraqis make up some 40,000 of al-Hol’s 68,000 residents. The camp is home to women and children who have been abandoned by ISIS fathers, who headed to the battlefronts where they were either killed or captured. Little is known of the ISIS prisoners after the Baghdad government abandoned them. They are currently held in jails run by the US-backed Kurdish Democratic Forces (SDF).

Iraqi family

Shayma hails from the Iraqi city of Mosul. Now in her 50s, she fled the city with her family in summer 2015. Her husband and son, both members of ISIS, were killed. She escaped with what remained of her family to the Syrian border city of al-Qaim. After heavy fighting broke out there, she entered Syria and sought refuge in the village of Abou Hamam in the northern Deir Ezzor countryside. She moved from town to town until she and her family of five reached al-Hol.

She now lives in a tent that does little to keep out the bitter winter cold and scorching summer heat. She lives there with her three daughters and two sons, aged 10 and 5. Asharq Al-Awsat toured the sparsely furnished tent. In one corner, Shayma set up a makeshift kitchen, in another, she set up a bathroom, which is separated from the rest of the tent with a dark grey curtain. The rest of the tent is styled in traditional Arab furnishings.

Her oldest daughter, Haifa, 30 told Asharq Al-Awsat that she is married to an ISIS member who is still in the field. “I don’t know anything about him. He may have been killed,” she said, adding that she has a child with him. She was born in Syria’s Baghouz, where ISIS made its last stand in the war-torn country. She is now a year and two months old.

Another sister, Wadad, married a Moroccan ISIS fighter when she was only 14 years old. He was killed in the battle of Hajin two years ago. Now 17, she gave birth to a child from him a year ago. With tears in her eyes, she expressed her conflicting feelings: “I don’t know what to tell my child when she grows up. Who was her father? How was he killed? Will I list the areas we sought refuge in to flee the fighting?”

Al-Hol was set up in the late 1990s to house 20,000 people. The number of its residents ballooned after the battle for Baghouz and now it holds 70,000 people in the arid Syrian desert, some 30 kilometers from the Iraq border.

Anger and questions

The camp has become a hotbed of anger and unanswered questions. Iraqi women wander a market, shouting loudly: “Where are our husbands? Why don’t they release them? Why won’t the Baghdad government take us back?”

As of 2018, more than 50,000 Iraqis had voluntarily returned to their homes, revealed Adnan al-Obeidi, head of the Iraqi refugee council in al-Hol. However, a year and a half ago, Iraqi authorities have been refusing to take in any more refugees. The camp management said more than 20,000 want to go back home, but only under the supervision of United Nations and international humanitarian agencies out of their fear of reprisals from the PMF, which controls several Iraqi regions.

Obeidi revealed that his office has handed the Baghdad government a list with the names of refugees. The list was submitted through the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and International Committee of the Red Cross and “each time, we receive approval to return the refugees, but the process is always aborted for unknown reasons.”

Camp director Majida Amine told Asharq Al-Awsat that diplomatic coordination was ongoing between the autonomous authority in northeastern Syria and the Iraq government. Various pledges were made to allow the refugees to return to their homes. In early 2019, Iraq stopped receiving refugees willing to go back home. She said Iraq was to blame for the halt. “We have submitted lists of voluntary refugees months ago and we have yet to receive approval.”

She described the situation in al-Hol as “very difficult and disastrous” because tens of thousands of people were in dire need of help. Many have witnessed atrocities, war and indescribable suffering, both physical and psychological. The Iraqis need safety, shelter, food and health care that is lacking in the camp.



Iran-Israel War: A Lifeline for Netanyahu?

FILE - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a ceremony on the eve of Israel's Remembrance Day for fallen soldiers at the Yad LaBanim Memorial in Jerusalem, on April 29, 2025. (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP, File)
FILE - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a ceremony on the eve of Israel's Remembrance Day for fallen soldiers at the Yad LaBanim Memorial in Jerusalem, on April 29, 2025. (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP, File)
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Iran-Israel War: A Lifeline for Netanyahu?

FILE - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a ceremony on the eve of Israel's Remembrance Day for fallen soldiers at the Yad LaBanim Memorial in Jerusalem, on April 29, 2025. (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP, File)
FILE - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a ceremony on the eve of Israel's Remembrance Day for fallen soldiers at the Yad LaBanim Memorial in Jerusalem, on April 29, 2025. (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP, File)

The Iran-Israel war has helped strengthen Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu domestically and overseas, just as his grip on power looked vulnerable.

On the eve of launching strikes on Iran, his government looked to be on the verge of collapse, with a drive to conscript ultra-Orthodox Jews threatening to scupper his fragile coalition.

Nearly two years on from Hamas's unprecedented attack in 2023, Netanyahu was under growing domestic criticism for his handling of the war in Gaza, where dozens of hostages remain unaccounted for, said AFP.

Internationally too, he was coming under pressure including from longstanding allies, who since the war with Iran began have gone back to expressing support.

Just days ago, polls were predicting Netanyahu would lose his majority if new elections were held, but now, his fortunes appear to have reversed, and Israelis are seeing in "Bibi" the man of the moment.

– 'Reshape the Middle East' –

For decades, Netanyahu has warned of the risk of a nuclear attack on Israel by Iran -- a fear shared by most Israelis.

Yonatan Freeman, a geopolitics expert at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said Netanyahu's argument that the pre-emptive strike on Iran was necessary draws "a lot of public support" and that the prime minister has been "greatly strengthened".

Even the opposition has rallied behind him.

"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is my political rival, but his decision to strike Iran at this moment in time is the right one," opposition leader Yair Lapid wrote in a Jerusalem Post op-ed.

A poll published Saturday by a conservative Israeli channel showed that 54 percent of respondents expressed confidence in the prime minister.

The public had had time to prepare for the possibility of an offensive against Iran, with Netanyahu repeatedly warning that Israel was fighting for its survival and had an opportunity to "reshape the Middle East."

During tit-for-tat military exchanges last year, Israel launched air raids on targets in Iran in October that are thought to have severely damaged Iranian air defenses.

Israel's then-defense minister Yoav Gallant said the strikes had shifted "the balance of power" and had "weakened" Iran.

"In fact, for the past 20 months, Israelis have been thinking about this (a war with Iran)," said Denis Charbit, a political scientist at Israel's Open University.

Since Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, Netanyahu has ordered military action in Gaza, against the Iran-backed Hezbollah group in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen, as well as targets in Syria where long-time leader Bashar al-Assad fell in December last year.

"Netanyahu always wants to dominate the agenda, to be the one who reshuffles the deck himself -- not the one who reacts -- and here he is clearly asserting his Churchillian side, which is, incidentally, his model," Charbit said.

"But depending on the outcome and the duration (of the war), everything could change, and Israelis might turn against Bibi and demand answers."

– Silencing critics –

For now, however, people in Israel see the conflict with Iran as a "necessary war," according to Nitzan Perelman, a researcher specialized in Israel at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in France.

"Public opinion supports this war, just as it has supported previous ones," she added.

"It's very useful for Netanyahu because it silences criticism, both inside the country and abroad."

In the weeks ahead of the Iran strikes, international criticism of Netanyahu and Israel's military had reached unprecedented levels.

After more than 55,000 deaths in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, and a blockade that has produced famine-like conditions there, Israel has faced growing isolation and the risk of sanctions, while Netanyahu himself is the subject of an international arrest warrant for alleged war crimes.

But on Sunday, two days into the war with Iran, the Israeli leader received a phone call from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, while Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has held talks with numerous counterparts.

"There's more consensus in Europe in how they see Iran, which is more equal to how Israel sees Iran," explained Freeman from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Tuesday that Israel was doing "the dirty work... for all of us."

The idea that a weakened Iran could lead to regional peace and the emergence of a new Middle East is appealing to the United States and some European countries, according to Freeman.

But for Perelman, "Netanyahu is exploiting the Iranian threat, as he always has."