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Schools Reopen in Iraqi Kurdistan Region Despite COVID-19 Outbreak

Security agents wearing masks in Sulaimaniya, Iraqi Kurdistan (Reuters)
Security agents wearing masks in Sulaimaniya, Iraqi Kurdistan (Reuters)
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Schools Reopen in Iraqi Kurdistan Region Despite COVID-19 Outbreak

Security agents wearing masks in Sulaimaniya, Iraqi Kurdistan (Reuters)
Security agents wearing masks in Sulaimaniya, Iraqi Kurdistan (Reuters)

The Supreme Committee to confront the coronavirus in Iraq's Kurdistan region convened on Wednesday to assess the overall health situation and the spread of COVID-19 in the area, during which it decided on a set of measures to resume the academic year.

Following the meeting, the spokesman for Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Jutyar Adel, held a joint press conference with the education and health ministers.

Adel said that the committee approved a set of new precautions to confront the virus, including the opening of four border crossings in Bashmaq, Parvez Khan, Ibrahim Khalil and Haji Omeran, given that the health measures are followed, and people are tested on arrival. He also indicated that citizens who do not abide by preventive measures and wear masks will be subject to penalties.

For his part, the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Aram Mohammad, said that e-learning will continue for university students, however he noted that exams will be held on campus.

He stressed that students must adhere to precautionary measures, stressing that the academic year will not be postponed.

Also, the Minister of Education, Alan Saeed, said that the school year will continue as previously announced for the primary and secondary schools. He said that students of grades one, two, and twelve will be attending classes while the rest will study online.

The Ministry of Health said it registered 912 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, in addition to 20 deaths.

Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, Pulmonologist and doctor of internal medicine Dr. Ali Barzanji said that the right measures to prevent and confront the virus are those announced by the World Health Organization (WHO).

He stressed that the validity of these precautions depends on seasonal changes and citizens’ commitment to the measures, adding that full lockdown is the best solution to prevent the spread of the virus.

However, he noted that lockdown can’t be applied for long periods due to economic and social challenges.

"Authorities should rely on the citizens and their commitment to the precautions", according to the expert.

Barzanji warned that an increased number of cases in hospitals and private clinics reveal that there is a second wave of infections, but the official figures are yet to be announced by the Health Ministry.

Meanwhile, Epidemiologist Dr. Khalil Salim said that lockdowns are not a proper solution to confront the second wave of the virus.

Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, Salim said being ready for a second wave requires preparing the health teams and facilities to confront the surge in cases.

He noted that lockdowns enforced in many countries at the beginning of the first wave aimed to help authorities prepare their medical teams to confront the outbreak.

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Arab World

Israel Kills Nine in Gaza as Egypt Hosts New Ceasefire Talks

Palestinians look at the wreckage of a car hit by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on June 7, 2026. (AFP)
Palestinians look at the wreckage of a car hit by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on June 7, 2026. (AFP)
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Israel Kills Nine in Gaza as Egypt Hosts New Ceasefire Talks

Palestinians look at the wreckage of a car hit by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on June 7, 2026. (AFP)
Palestinians look at the wreckage of a car hit by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on June 7, 2026. (AFP)

Israeli strikes on a Hamas-run police station and a vehicle in the Gaza Strip killed at least nine people and wounded 20 others, health officials said, as mediators began new efforts to salvage a fragile US-brokered ceasefire deal.

One strike hit a police post adjacent to a large tent encampment of displaced families in Khan Younis in the south of the enclave, killing five people and wounding 16 others, medics said. They did not say how many of the casualties were police.

Israel has stepped up attacks against police headquarters and personnel in the past several months, killing dozens of them, according to Hamas security officials.

Later on ‌Sunday, another Israeli ‌airstrike killed four people and wounded four others when it hit a ‌vehicle ⁠driving through the middle ⁠of Gaza City, medics said.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the incidents.

Major fighting has been paused since October under a ceasefire after two years of war, but no agreement has been reached to implement a further US-backed plan for Israeli troops to withdraw, Hamas to disarm and Gaza to be rebuilt.

Israeli troops still control more than half of Gaza's territory, where they have ordered residents out and destroyed remaining buildings. Nearly the entire population of 2 million now lives in a tiny strip of land along ⁠the coast, mainly in makeshift tents or damaged buildings, under Hamas control.

Hamas' ‌nearly 10,000 police officers have emerged as a sticking point ‌in talks to advance US President Donald Trump's plan for Gaza. Hamas wants them included in a new ‌police force; Israel rejects a role for any Hamas-affiliated personnel.

Egypt began hosting a new round of ‌truce talks with leaders from Hamas and other Palestinian factions, sources from Hamas and other sources close to the negotiations said. The talks are expected to last for a few days.

Israel and Hamas have repeatedly accused each other of violating the truce. Israeli strikes in Gaza have killed more than 950 Palestinians since the start of the ‌truce, while Palestinian attacks have killed four Israeli soldiers.

Last year's deal established a Board of Peace led by Trump to oversee a phased ⁠ceasefire and was ratified ⁠by the United Nations Security Council.

However, many of the toughest areas of dispute, including the disarmament of Hamas, Israeli withdrawal and make-up of a Gaza government, were postponed to later in the process. The Board of Peace negotiators have been talking to both sides on the disarmament issue.

Hamas told envoys from the Board and mediators Egypt, Qatar and Türkiye that ending Israeli attacks in Gaza was essential for any progress, sources from the group and officials close to the talks said.

Hazem Qassem, a Hamas spokesperson in Gaza, said on Sunday the group was open to ideas that would lead to ending Israeli attacks in Gaza and reaching common ground over issues of the second phase of the Trump plan. But he said the Board of Peace should stop being "biased" towards Israel.

Nearly 73,000 people in Gaza have been killed since the war started, most of them civilians, according to Gaza health authorities.

Israel launched its assault after Hamas-led fighters broke across the border, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 Israeli and foreign hostages on October 7, 2023.

Arab World

Trump Urges More ‘Surgical’ Strikes Against Hezbollah

US President Donald Trump speaks with reporters while aboard Air Force One on June 5, 2026 en route to Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. (Getty Images/AFP)
US President Donald Trump speaks with reporters while aboard Air Force One on June 5, 2026 en route to Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. (Getty Images/AFP)
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Trump Urges More ‘Surgical’ Strikes Against Hezbollah

US President Donald Trump speaks with reporters while aboard Air Force One on June 5, 2026 en route to Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. (Getty Images/AFP)
US President Donald Trump speaks with reporters while aboard Air Force One on June 5, 2026 en route to Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. (Getty Images/AFP)

US President Donald Trump called for more "surgical" strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon and said he is not demanding the conflict be included in a peace deal with Iran, in an interview broadcast Sunday.

"I'd like to see a more surgical attack on Hezbollah. I think it should be more surgical," Trump told NBC's "Meet the Press," according to a transcript of the interview recorded Friday.

"I'd like to see Lebanon have a better life," he added.

Israel carried out strikes on Sunday on the southern suburbs of Beirut, a stronghold of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah, saying it was retaliating for attacks targeting its territory despite a ceasefire that has not stopped the cycle of violence.

Asked whether he was demanding that Lebanon be included in the Iran deal, Trump replied: "No, no."

"Not at all. I'm not demanding," he said. "I think they'd like to see it, but I'm not demanding."

Trump has said previously he would like to "separate" the discussions on Lebanon from the negotiations on an agreement with Iran, while Tehran, on the contrary, wants to link the two conflicts.

Trump confirmed in an interview last week with The New York Post that he had a tense phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during which he reportedly reprimanded his close ally about the Israeli offensive in Lebanon.

Israeli strikes on Lebanon have destroyed numerous buildings and killed more than 3,560 people since the restart of fighting on March 2, according to the latest official figures.

On the Israeli side, 29 soldiers and one civilian contractor have been killed in Lebanon, according to the army.

Hezbollah dragged Lebanon into the broader Middle East war when it began attacking Israel to avenge Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the first wave of the US-Israel offensive.

A ceasefire that was supposed to end fighting between Israel and Hezbollah took effect on April 17, but has never been fully respected.

In the interview, Trump also said that Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa would "love to help" forge an agreement in the Lebanon conflict.

"We can recommend Syria. Syria's doing a very good job of cleaning up their act. They have a very good leader," he said. "And he would love to help."

Arab World

Israel Strikes Beirut Despite Truce, Iranian Lawmaker Threatens to Retaliate

An army soldier stands at the site of an Israeli airstrike targeting an apartment in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, 07 June 2026. (EPA)
An army soldier stands at the site of an Israeli airstrike targeting an apartment in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, 07 June 2026. (EPA)
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Israel Strikes Beirut Despite Truce, Iranian Lawmaker Threatens to Retaliate

An army soldier stands at the site of an Israeli airstrike targeting an apartment in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, 07 June 2026. (EPA)
An army soldier stands at the site of an Israeli airstrike targeting an apartment in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, 07 June 2026. (EPA)

Israel struck the outskirts of Beirut on Sunday for the first time since the US announced a truce plan for Lebanon last week, and an Iranian lawmaker threatened to retaliate, putting talks to end the wider war into new jeopardy.

Iran has long said any peace deal with the United States would depend on a ceasefire also holding in Lebanon, which Israel invaded in March in pursuit of Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters who fired across the border in solidarity with Tehran.

There was no immediate formal response from Tehran to Sunday's Israeli strikes on the southern outskirts of Beirut, but influential hardline Iranian lawmaker Ebrahim Rezaei posted on X that Iran would deliver a "decisive ‌and painful response".

"Look ‌at the sky of the occupied territories tonight," wrote Rezaei, who serves as ‌the ⁠spokesperson for parliament's ⁠national security committee.

Washington and Tehran have shown little progress in reaching a deal to end the war that President Donald Trump launched in February with a campaign of air strikes alongside Israel against Iran. Trump has repeatedly threatened to restart the strikes unless there is an agreement soon.

"We're very close to a deal, or I'm going to blow the hell out of them," Trump told NBC News in an interview, broadcast to mark 100 days of the conflict. The comments were recorded on Friday and broadcast on Sunday as Trump visited his New Jersey golf course.

TRUMP LEANS ON NETANYAHU

Trump has leaned on Israel to scale ⁠back its campaign in Lebanon to allow room for a peace deal with Iran, ‌including rebuking Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with obscenities in a phone call last ‌week. After the call, Netanyahu called off air strikes on Beirut and agreed the latest truce plan with the Lebanese government.

But Israel ‌has never fully halted its campaign in Lebanon, which has killed thousands of people and driven hundreds of thousands from ‌their homes. Hezbollah, which was not party to the truce and would be dismantled under its terms, has also continued attacks and says it will not give up its weapons unless Israel halts fighting and withdraws.

Netanyahu said Sunday's strike on Beirut's southern outskirts, a district known as Dahieh that has long been a Hezbollah stronghold, was ordered in response to Hezbollah firing toward Israel.

The Israeli military ‌had earlier said it had intercepted two projectiles fired over the border. It issued an evacuation order for the southern Lebanese city of Tyre and surrounding areas ahead of ⁠possible strikes there.

Elsewhere in Beirut ⁠on Sunday, mourners held a military funeral for Brigadier General Wissam Sabra, a senior military officer killed in a strike on his vehicle in the south the previous day.

The wider war has been stalemated since the United States and Israel paused their attacks on Iran in early April, with Tehran blocking most shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the main transit route for Middle East oil. Washington has imposed its own blockade of Iranian ports.

Though the sides have both said they are close to a preliminary agreement that would reopen the strait, they have repeatedly traded strikes, with escalations in recent days that have included attacks on nearby Arab states hosting US bases.

US forces struck Iranian coastal radar sites in Goruk and Qeshm Island, both in the Strait of Hormuz, early on Saturday after shooting down drones launched by Iran that US Central Command said posed a threat to maritime traffic. Two more Iranian attack drones that were threatening shipping in the strait were shot down, the US military said late on Saturday.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they retaliated against US bases in Kuwait and Bahrain. Kuwait's army said it engaged seven ballistic missiles that passed over residential areas, resulting in material damage but no casualties.