Food banned inside the Grand Mosque

Makkah, Jul 16: Cleaners at the Grand Mosque in Makkah are facing tough time cleaning the mosque’s courtyard because of the large amount of food brought in by visitors to break their fast.

Speaking on the issue, an official at the mosque, said: “Pilgrims and visitors at the Grand Mosque don’t need to bring in their own food as authorities are supplying over a million iftar packs to them daily,” adding that large quantities of food and beverages into the Grand Mosque hamper cleaners from doing their job.

Abdullah Al-Tamih said: “Leftovers and plastic disposables were also posing a difficulty to other worshippers and pilgrims.”

The official advised visitors to deposit their belongings in safe lockers located outside the Grand Mosque, “which are secured with electronic locks and available in different sizes according to the needs of visitors.”

Pilgrims sitting idly in the courtyards of the Grand Mosque hamper the movement of those coming and going to the toilets, he said. He highlighted a number of other issues related to the maintenance of the mosque, including the wastage of zam zam water by pilgrims and the empty cups lying all over the courtyards when there are several bins available for the purpose.

“Owing to the huge crowds present at the Grand Mosque in the evenings, 500 professional employees have been assigned to supervise the cleaning operation immediately after the iftar is over,” he added.

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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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