Govt move makes room for 185,000 more in Mina

September 29, 2013

Jeddah, Sep 29: The move to shift government departments from Mina to a new administration complex in Muzdalifah would create 23 percent extra space in the tent city to accommodate 185,000 more pilgrims this year, said Sultan Al-Dossary, spokesman of the Makkah governorate.

The first phase of the complex has been completed on an area of 1 million square meters. Most of the non-essential government agencies would be shifted to the new facility, he said.

Al-Dossary said the project’s second phase would be implemented in due course to move the remaining government agencies from Mina within a few years. Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal would inspect the new building complex on Monday. The complex, located on Muzdalifah’s borders, will have 13 buildings with 3,200 offices and housing units in addition to a helipad and a huge water tank with a capacity of 36,000 cubic meters of water.

More than 600,000 foreign pilgrims have already arrived for Haj that begins on Oct. 13. Nearly 2 million pilgrims are expected to take part in this year’s pilgrimage.

Prince Khaled has instructed 15 government agencies to take immediate measures to prevent possible flooding of roads leading to Makkah and other holy sites during this Haj season.

“Related government departments have to deploy enough manpower with the necessary equipment to deal with floods and protect pilgrims traveling through flood-prone routes,” a source said.

The Presidency of Meteorology and Environment has predicted the possibility of light rainfall in Makkah and Madinah during the Haj season. During the month of October, from 1985 to 2012, Makkah received rain for short periods followed by floods in some years, it said.

In its weather report for October, the presidency said temperatures in Makkah during the day would be hot, with pleasant weather at night. Temperatures would range from 38 to 43 Celsius at noon and 24 to 27 Celsius at night. Humidity would drop to 14 percent at noon and go up to 87 percent at night, it added.

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