100 towers in SR50bn Madinah pilgrim city to house 200,000

October 9, 2014

Madinah, Oct 9: Work on the first phase of the SR50 billion King Abdullah Pilgrim City in Madinah has begun as part of the government’s efforts to further improve services being extended to the guests of God who come for Haj and Umrah every year.

The massive city covering an area of over 1.6 million square meters will accommodate 200,000 people. It is located 3 km to the west of the Prophet’s Mosque, 3 km from Meeqat, and 900 meters from Quba Mosque.

“Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah has instructed the Finance Ministry to implement the project,” said Madinah Gov. Prince Faisal bin Salman, adding that it would boost pilgrim services in the city.

State-owned Public Investment Fund will finance the project, which includes a 400-bed hospital and a railway and bus station.

“A number of hotels and furnished apartments will be constructed as part of the world-class city to accommodate 200,000 pilgrims,” said Prince Faisal while thanking King Abdullah for approving the vital project.

A source at the Ministry of Finance, said the total cost of the giant project is expected to exceed SR50 billion. The first phase will cost SR3.3 billion while the second phase SR2.7 billion. The project will have 100 administrative and residential towers and 30 hotels apart from the Haj Ministry headquarters, the Haj secretariat, and the Madinah governor’s office.

It would help to provide better services for the guests of God, create thousands of local jobs and contribute to the social and economic development of the city.

The source said the project is one of several that are to be undertaken to develop Madinah, which would compensate for the number of properties demolished.

There would also be suites for businesspeople. Each hotel would have large reception halls with unique architectural designs, in addition to restaurants, coffee shops and business centers.

The city will house offices for the Supreme Haj Committee in Madinah, and administrative offices for Haj operators and Tawafa organizations, as well as offices for the General Syndicate of Cars, travel agents and medical missions with a capacity for 31,000 employees.

Lower floors have been allocated for parking. There would also be a big mosque on the southeastern side of the city to house 15,000 worshippers.

The bus station will have the capacity to transport 84,000 pilgrims to and from the Prophet’s Mosque. The commercial center is made up of three floors over 71,000 square meters, the source said.

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UN condemns Israeli regime’s ‘organized torture’ against Palestinians

News Network

November 30,2025

The United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT) has condemned the Israeli regime for enforcing a policy of “organized torture” against Palestinians.

In a report published on Friday, CAT stated that the occupying regime enforces a deliberate policy of “organized and widespread torture and ill-treatment” against Palestinian abductees, particularly since October 7, 2023, when Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza.

The committee expressed “deep concern over repeated severe beatings, dog attacks, electrocution, water-boarding, use of prolonged stress positions [and] sexual violence” inflicted on Palestinians.

Palestinian prisoners were degraded by “being made to act like animals or being urinated on,” systematically denied medical care, and subjected to excessive restraints, “in some cases resulting in amputation,” the report added.

CAT also condemned the routine application of “unlawful combatants law” to justify the prolonged detention without trial of thousands of Palestinian men, women, and children.

More than 10,000 Palestinians, including women and children, are currently held in Israeli prisons, according to Palestinian and international human rights groups, with 3,474 Palestinians in “administrative detention,” meaning they are imprisoned without trial for indefinite periods.

The report highlighted the “high proportion of children who are currently detained without charge or on remand,” noting that while Israel sets the age of criminal responsibility at 12, even younger children have been abducted.

Children designated as security prisoners face severe restrictions on family contact, may be subjected to solitary confinement, and are denied access to education, in clear violation of international law.

The committee further suggested that Israel’s policies across the Occupied Territories constitute collective torture against the Palestinian population.

“A range of policies adopted by Israel in the course of its continued unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory amounts to cruel, inhuman or degrading living conditions for the Palestinian population,” the report said.

On Thursday, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas condemned the systematic killing and torture of Palestinian abductees in Israeli prisons, urging international action to halt these abuses.

Citing human rights data, Hamas stated that 94 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli prisons since the start of Tel Aviv’s genocidal war on Gaza.

“This reflects an organized criminal approach that has turned these prisons into direct killing grounds to eliminate our people,” the resistance movement said.

Hamas called on the international community, the UN, and human rights organizations to immediately pressure Israel to end crimes against prisoners and uphold their rights as guaranteed by all international conventions and norms.

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