BAGHDAD: The Iraqi government has announced a mandatory official holiday due to a heat wave.
Wednesday’s late night statement calling for a Thursday holiday came from the Iraqi Cabinet as temperatures hit 50 degrees Celsius (123 degrees Fahrenheit). It is the first heat advisory issued by the government this summer.
The public holiday applies to all government workers.
Last on Thursday, the state-run Meteorological Department warned that temperatures in much of the country would reach as high as 51 degrees Celsius (123.8 Fahrenheit).
Temperatures reached 51 Celsius in Baghdad and as much as 53 degrees Celsius (127.4 Fahrenheit) in Basra last year, prompting the government to announce a two-day mandatory holiday.
The country typically faces brutal heat in the summers and endemic electricity outages make life even harder when temperatures soar.
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Iraq announces mandatory official holiday due to heat wave
Iraq announces mandatory official holiday due to heat wave
Israel says forces open fire on West Bank stone-throwers, one dead
The Israeli military said its forces killed a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank in the early hours on Thursday as they opened fire on people who were throwing stones at soldiers. Two other people were hit on a main road near the village of Luban al-Sharqiya in Nablus, the military statement added. It described the people as militants and said the stone-throwing was part of an ambush.
Palestinian authorities in the West Bank said a 26-year-old man they named as Khattab Al Sarhan was killed and another person wounded.
Israeli forces had closed the main entrance to the village of Luban Al-Sharqiya, in Nablus, and blocked several secondary roads on Wednesday, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency WAFA reported.
More than a thousand Palestinians were killed in the West Bank between October 2023 and October 2025, mostly in operations by security forces and some by settler violence, the UN has said.
Over the same period, 57 Israelis were killed in Palestinian attacks.
Palestinian authorities in the West Bank said a 26-year-old man they named as Khattab Al Sarhan was killed and another person wounded.
Israeli forces had closed the main entrance to the village of Luban Al-Sharqiya, in Nablus, and blocked several secondary roads on Wednesday, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency WAFA reported.
More than a thousand Palestinians were killed in the West Bank between October 2023 and October 2025, mostly in operations by security forces and some by settler violence, the UN has said.
Over the same period, 57 Israelis were killed in Palestinian attacks.
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