‘Chemically upsized’ watermelons spark fears

May 4, 2015

Jeddah, May 4: Watermelons being sold in Taif by street vendors have caused alarm. There is a widespread fear that the product is genetically modified and chemically nourished to speed up ripening and increase its size.

The fears have been aggravated following the circulation on social networking sites of a video clip, which shows how the watermelons are upsized with the help of unknown chemicals. Farmers are seen using chemicals to speed up the watermelon’s ripening process and increase its size. Consumers now fear the chemicals could cause cancer.

They expressed astonishment over poor supervision and weak control of the departments concerned over farmers and the produce being sold in markets.

Street vendors said they buy the watermelons in wholesale from truck owners coming from Wadi Al-Dawassir and sell them retail. Commenting on nourishment methods, they said they have noticed the increase in size, which makes them wonder and question why this has happened.

“The drivers said farmers add chemicals to the irrigation water to hasten the ripening process and increase size to enable them to sell their product at higher prices,” said vendors, adding that the price of one watermelon might reach as high as SR50.

Speaking to a local publication, Salem Al-Thaqafi, a citizen said: “One farmer from Wadi Al-Dawassir told me that watermelons coming from there and other areas in the Kingdom are genetically modified and chemically fed to increase its size so it can be sold at high prices.”

Saad Al-Thabti agreed with him. “This is the method used in the farming of all agro products,” he said. “Foreign workers make profits regardless of the health of customers. There is a lack of supervision by the authorities which endangers consumers’ health.”

A source at the Ministry of Agriculture, quoted by the local media, said the ministry always follow up on the work of farmers and hold awareness campaigns to warn them on the hazards of chemicals on human health.

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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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