Eight tunnels to ease traffic in Makkah

May 30, 2013

Jeddah, May 30: Eight new tunnels, including two for pedestrians, are under construction in the holy city of Makkah to ensure free flow of pilgrims and vehicles, press reports said yesterday.

“The tunnels are constructed as part of King Abdullah Project for Expansion of Makkah and holy sites,” one source said, adding that

they would be ready for use shortly.

The project includes construction of three emergency tunnels for rapid evacuation purposes, two tunnels for sewage and electricity and one for services.

The pedestrian tunnels will have a width of 16 meters each and a height of 8.3 meters.

Both tunnels located side by side, with a length of 740 meters, originate from the side of Masaa (the running area between Safa and Marwa) and ends at Hajoun, the source said.

In a related development, Water and Electricity Minister Abdullah Al-Hussayen said the King Abdullah Zamzam Water Distribution Center in Makkah is working round the clock and throughout the year and can supply 200,000 bottles (10 liters each) daily.

The center, which was set up at a cost of SR 700 million, has four production lines while its tanks have a storage capacity of 36,000 cubic meters.

“We are planning to construct another storage tank with a capacity of 40,000 cubic meters,” the minister said.

Total production of the center reached 1.8 million cubic meters since its inception three years ago, of which 1.3 million cubic meters was pumped to the two holy mosques.

Last year it distributed 650,000 bottles of water among the Haj pilgrims.

Comments

Add new comment

Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.

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.

Comments