
Israel completely destroyed 120 homes and severely damaged dozens more in Jenin during the ongoing offensive, according to Jenin Municipality
Israel completely destroyed 120 homes and severely damaged dozens more in Jenin during the ongoing offensive, according to Jenin Municipality
Iraq announced on Monday that the country’s population has surpassed 46 million, a slight increase from the preliminary figure revealed following the census, which was conducted in November of last year, almost after four decades.
Iraq’s population has increased to 46.118 million, up from the preliminary figure of 45.4 million announced in November 2024, the Iraqi state news agency INA reported, citing the Planning Ministry.
According to the ministry, 70.17% of Iraq’s population lives in cities, while 29.83% live in rural areas. In northern Iraq’s Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), 84.57% of the population live in urban areas, and 15.43% live in rural areas.
The report also showed that the illiteracy rate in Iraq is 15.31%, while in the KRG, it is slightly up 16.23%.
The average marriage age is 22.24 years, with males at 24.06 years and females at 20.7 years, it added.
The November census covered the entire country, including northern Iraq’s Kurdish region, and was the first in 37 years.
Ben Saul, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion of Human Rights and Counterterrorism, appealed to Israel to repeal two laws preventing the UN agency for Palestinian refugees from “fulfilling its international mandate to provide humanitarian relief and essential services.”
Saul joined 25 independent UN experts in their initiative, “Peace Starts Here,” stating in a report that “certain provisions in these laws” – which came into effect at the end of last month – may violate international law.