Geologists, Aramco join race against time to rescue girl

December 27, 2013

Jeddah, Dec 27: Experts from Saudi Aramco and the Saudi Geological Survey (SGS) have joined the bid to free six-year-old Lama from a well in Haql near Tabuk.

Lama had fallen into a 100-meter-deep well seven days ago while picnicking in the area.

Adverse weather conditions have hampered the weeklong operation to rescue Lama. “Falling loose soil and rains have complicated the operation,” a Civil Defense official told Arab News.

Zuhair Nawab, president of the SGS, said he would send an expert team immediately to the site. “They will advise the Civil Defense and other government agencies on how to reach the girl without any problems,” Nawab said.

Saudi Aramco sent experts and equipment to the Civil Defense on Thursday while the Kingdom's chief geologist Ahmed Salem Basamad, his deputy, hydro expert Ehab Abdul Aziz Al-Ashi, and high-ranking Civil Defense officials have gone to the site to supervise the operation.

Officials stopped the search operation on Wednesday after experts warned that mudslides near the well could endanger the lives of scores of Civil Defense officers involved in one of the largest rescue operations of its kind in the Kingdom, said Badar Al-Jahani, a Saudi journalist, who spoke to Arab News over the phone from the site.

Rescuers have drilled a borehole parallel to the well to reach the child, said Maj. Gen. Mastour Al-Harithy, director of the Civil Defense in Tabuk, who has been camping at the site for the last seven days.

The Ministry of Health has set up a medical facility to treat rescue workers who have been working continuously at the site for a week. The medical team also provided treatment for the girl’s father who has been at the spot for the last seven days.

Eyewitnesses told Arab News over the phone that hundreds of concerned and curious people are attempting to reach the area but security officers have prevented them from doing so.

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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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