BAGHDAD: Iraqis grappled on Monday with searing heat in the capital Baghdad and parts of the country’s south, where the weather service said temperatures reached 51C in the shade.
Iraq’s 46 million people face rising temperatures, chronic water shortages and year-on-year droughts, in a country intensely impacted by the effects of climate change.
Summer temperatures often climb to 52C, especially in July and August.
On central Baghdad’s bustling streets on Monday, people sought respite from the sweltering heat in front of swirling mist fans set up near restaurants and shops.
Some pedestrians drenched their faces with cold water purchased from sidewalk vendors, while drivers had to pull over to the roadside to cool down their engines.
The national weather service said the temperature reached 51C in Baghdad and in areas to the capital’s southeast, from the central Wasit province to Dhi Qar, Missan and Basra in the south.
Another eight provinces hit 50C on Monday, with temperatures expected to drop slightly on Wednesday, according to the official Iraq News Agency.
In recent years, Iraqis rallied every summer to protest regular power cuts and water shortages that plague their daily lives.
Hundreds of people protested on Friday and Sunday near the cities of Hilla and Diwaniyah, south of Baghdad, blocking roads and burning tires.
Iraq’s water resources ministry has said that “this year is one of the driest since 1933,” and that water reserve are down to only eight percent of their full capacity.
Authorities blame reduced river flows in part on upstream dams built in neighboring Iran and Turkiye, which Iraq says have dramatically shrunk the once-mighty Tigris and Euphrates whose waters have been crucial for irrigation for millennia.
Temperatures have risen significantly elsewhere in the region, with neighboring Turkiye registering on Saturday 50.5C in its southeast, a nationwide record.
Last week, a severe heatwave in Iran disrupted water and electricity supplies in much of the country.
Blazing heat in Iraq as Baghdad, south top 50C
https://arab.news/ys24u
Blazing heat in Iraq as Baghdad, south top 50C
- Iraq’s 46 million people face rising temperatures, chronic water shortages and year-on-year droughts, in a country intensely impacted by the effects of climate change
More than 100 Palestinians detained in West Bank since start of Ramadan, including women, children
- Arrests by Israelis accompanied by extensive field interrogation
RAMALLAH: Israeli forces have detained more than 100 Palestinians from the West Bank since the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan, including women, children, and former prisoners, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society reported on Sunday.
The organization said the detentions coincided with Israel’s announcement of the intensification of such actions during Ramadan, with recent settler attacks providing cover for widespread detentions across most West Bank governorates, including Jerusalem. Many detainees from Jerusalem have been barred from entering Al-Aqsa Mosque.
A statement pointed out that arrests by Israelis are accompanied by extensive field interrogation which often targets all sections of Palestinian society.
Documented violations accompanying detentions include severe beatings, organized terror campaigns against detainees and their families, destruction and looting of homes, confiscation of vehicles, money and gold, demolition of family homes, use of family members as hostages, employment of prisoners as human shields, and extrajudicial executions.
The society stressed that Israel exploits detention campaigns to expand settlement activity in the West Bank, with settlers serving as a key tool to impose a new reality.
The Palestinian Detainees Affairs Commission has revealed harrowing details of the abuses faced by Palestinian prisoner Mohammed Wajih Mahamid from Jenin during his incarceration in Israeli prisons.
The commission said that on Nov. 15, 2023, Mahamid was severely beaten on his right knee with a baton used by prison guards, causing a serious injury that left him unable to walk without crutches.
He was beaten again on the same knee on March 29, 2025, resulting in severe swelling which was later confirmed to be a fracture. Despite his condition, the prison authorities only provided painkillers and refused to transfer him to hospital, maintaining a policy of deliberate medical neglect.
The commission stressed that these abuses reflected the harsh reality faced by Palestinian detainees, who are deprived of basic human rights, medical treatment and care.
