By Samah Abdul Fattah | 2025-10-16

The "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) continues to exploit the difficult living conditions at al-Hol camp to maintain its influence, Syrian activists told Al-Fassel.

ISIS exerts pressure to maintain its presence by controlling basic resources and exploiting the inability of camp authorities and aid organizations to fully meet the residents' needs.

"Despite major efforts by the al-Hol camp administration and international humanitarian organizations to improve living conditions, a large number of residents are still facing difficulties," Azad Dudeki, a Kurdish Red Crescent team leader who currently works at the medical post at al-Hol camp, told Al-Fassel.

"Many families do not receive any financial support from outside the camp, often lacking transfers from relatives, or donors," he said.

"The group's exploitation of the camp’s poor and vulnerable residents is undeniable," Dudeki noted.

He explained "They intimidate these individuals to seize limited food and baby formula aid, using this control to subjugate them and entrench extremist ideology."

Extremist women still loyal to ISIS also control aid and assistance funded by relief organizations, "manipulating its distribution to maintain their power within the camp."

"The group's successful control over vulnerable families in the camp has sadly ensured that extremist ideology remains widespread, especially among its women and children," he said.

A new generation of Cubs of the Caliphate

Terrorist groups deliberately target poor families and individuals who are struggling with financial, social, and psychological problems as a method for spreading their influence.

"This tactic is exactly what ISIS implemented after declaring its state in Iraq and Syria, where it controlled all trade and sources of income and imposed high taxes to subjugate civilians in its areas of influence," military expert Yahya Muhammad Ali told Al-Fassel.

"Even the recruitment of young people from various countries relied primarily on financial incentives, women, and marriage, regardless of whether the recruits actually subscribed to ISIS's extremist ideology," he added.

"Even after the fall of its so-called state, ISIS continues to employ the same tactics, particularly within the al-Hol camp," Ali said.

"The group continues to commit systematic crimes, with women terrorizing other women and children, subjecting them to detention and torture, and sometimes even physically liquidating those who disobey orders," he added.

He stated that this tactic is a "pressure card to manipulate poor families who are unable to confront or even object."

The goal is to "maintain, even at a minimal level," the group's presence and "ensure the existence of a new generation of cubs of the caliphate."