World-class Madinah pilgrim city to house 200,000 faithful

June 11, 2013

Jeddah, Jun 11: A state-of-the-art pilgrim city will be established in Madinah on an area of 1.6 million square meters along Hijrah Road with modern facilities and public transport systems to house 200,000 faithful who come for Haj and Umrah.

“Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah has instructed the Finance Ministry to implement the project,” said Madinah Gov. Prince Faisal bin Salman, adding that it would boost pilgrim services in the city.

State-owned Public Investment Fund will finance the project, which is located close to the Prophet’s Mosque, he said. It includes a railway and bus station, offices of government agencies and a 400-bed hospital.

A number of hotels and furnished apartments will be constructed as part of the world-class city to accommodate 200,000 pilgrims, said Prince Faisal while thanking King Abdullah for approving the vital project.

Saudis and expatriates have applauded the project, saying it opens a new era in pilgrim services. “This is a brilliant project,” said Mohammed Badahdah, assistant secretary-general of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth. He urged authorities to make special arrangements at the new city for Islamic education of pilgrims.

Speaking to Arab News, he said: “Such a city was required as the buildings surrounding the Prophet’s Mosque will not be able to house the growing number of pilgrims.” He said he hoped there would be a transport system to commute pilgrims between the city and the holy mosque.

Badahdah said rooms in the city should be made available at affordable prices. He said five-star hotels in Makkah and Madinah should not charge pilgrims high prices as they do not provide them with same services of their counterparts in other places.

Abdulelah Saaty, dean of the College of Business in Rabigh, said the project reflected the government’s desire to improve services being rendered to the guests of God. “It goes well with the ongoing expansion projects for the two holy mosques,” he told Arab News. “Madinah needs such a project due to increasing number of pilgrims,” he said while stressing the need to carry out the project based on international standards.

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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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