200 illegal stalls shut in Jeddah

November 4, 2014

Jeddah, Nov 4: More than 200 illegally operated stalls were raided and closed down in the Balad district in downtown Jeddah over the past month, Sami Al-Ghamdi, spokesman for Jeddah municipality, said Monday.

''Municipal officials have undertaken round-the-clock inspection of stalls in all districts in the city. Food items unfit for human consumption sold in such stalls have been destroyed while those fit for consumption have been sent to charity organizations,'' Al-Ghamdi told Arab News.

The official said the municipality noticed the presence of illegal stalls in several poor neighborhoods and was striving to halt such practices with the help of police and other related departments.

According to Al-Ghamdi, those stalls run by Saudis have been legalized while the ones run by expatriate workers have been shut down.

The Committee to Combat Hawkers said in a recent statement that during the last Hijri year ending on Oct. 25, the municipality destroyed 3,276 carts used by vendors, 2,350 stalls, and 1,436 pick-up loads of vegetable and fruits besides arresting thousands of illegal expatriate hawkers with the help of local police.

The inspectors also raided and destroyed 1,000 illegal stalls, Al-Ghamdi said, and urged citizens to call the toll-free number 940, or notify authorities via the municipality's website in case they come across any illegal stands operating in any district.

It has been noticed recently that a number of illicit stalls and restaurants have cropped up in most streets and districts in the city causing traffic congestion and environmental pollution.

Educationist Bandar Zamim said that the presence of countless illegal stalls in different city districts has contributed to the spread of contagious diseases. Hawkers have found a profitable market in the city's schools, he said, and wondered why municipal inspectors are not taking any measures against them.

Resident Nader Al-Fouli said he loves to eat traditional food from stalls at street corners. However, he admitted some foreign hawkers set up their stalls without official permit and operate with scant regard for cleanliness or hygiene.

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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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