During the French mandate period, Assyrians fleeing ethnic cleansing in Iraq during the Simele massacre, established numerous villages along the Khabur River during the 1930s.

The economic boom in the cities of Qamishli and Al-Hasakah was a result of the irrigation projects started in the 1960s, which transformed northeastern Syria into a cotton-growing area.

[16][17] On 26 January 2011, in one of the first events of the 2011 Syrian protests,[18] Hasan Ali Akleh from Al-Hasakah poured gasoline on himself and set himself on fire, in the same way Tunisian Mohamed Bouazizi had in Tunis on 17 December 2010.

[19][20][better source needed] In the Battle of Hasakah of summer 2015, the Syrian Government lost control of much of the city to the Islamic State, which was then captured by the Kurdish YPG.

Afterwards, some 75% of Hasakah and all of the surrounding countryside were under the administration of the Federation of Northern Syria – Rojava, while only some inner-city areas were controlled by the Syrian government.

[25] On 16 August 2016, the Battle of al-Hasakah (2016) started, with the YPG and Asayish capturing most of the remaining areas held by government forces.

[27] Al-Hasakah has since been part of the Jazira Region in the framework of the de facto autonomous Federation of Northern Syria – Rojava.

After thwarting their attack on Ghweran prison, they barricaded themselves in the Faculty of Economics building in the Syrian government-controlled areas in the city of Hasaka, targeting civilians and the movements of the internal security forces' vehicles.

[36] Only civilian police officers and interior ministry forces were allowed to return to the Security Box to protect the government's department buildings.

The city came fully under Kurdish forces control on December 6th, 2024[40] due to the collapse of the Syrian government and overthrow of Bashar al-Assad.

Al-Hasakah has a Mediterranean-influenced semi-arid climate (BSh) with very hot dry summers and cool wet winters with occasional frosty nights.

[citation needed] Al-Hasakah has an ethnically diverse population of Arabs, Kurds and Assyrians, with a smaller number of Armenians.