Over 100 Jeddah restaurants closed this month

December 22, 2014

Jeddah, Dec 22: The Jeddah municipality closed down this month more than 100 restaurants and eateries across the city due to poor hygienic conditions as part of a campaign to ensure compliance with hygiene and safety specifications, Assistant Mayor for Branch Municipalities Nasser Al-Miteb said.

“The most common violations noticed were the sales of rotten food, items with expired validity dates or without information labels about the source of manufacture. Some facilities were found to have poor storage and handling equipment, invalid licenses and filthy kitchens with insects and rodents,” Miteb said, adding that all the violations had been recorded and penal measures taken.

“The restaurants were shuttered with a view to protecting the health of customers and ensuring that the food supplied in the eateries is safe,” he said.

He added that the restaurants had been closed temporarily until the owners corrected the irregularities. He also warned that if the outlets were reopened without permission, they would be shuttered again and could only open following an additional fine for violating the closure order. Miteb said that the periodic campaigns against restaurants would continue with 14 inspection teams of branch municipalities accompanied by teams of the municipal general administration for commercial licensing and monitoring.

In a related development, a municipal report said the general administration for licensing and monitoring markets in Jeddah inspected with the help of branch municipalities 17,608 establishments in the health sector last year and discovered 5,109 health establishments violating various regulations. While 12,499 businesses fulfilled hygienic specifications during the period, 1,681 shops were found in breach of various regulations. The report put the number of fast food outlets and restaurants inspected last year at 4,803, in addition to 682 bakeries and groceries, 205 supermarkets and warehouses, 243 water bottling plants and food manufacturing units. The most common violations committed in those establishments were related to poor hygienic conditions, lack of valid licenses, selling stale food, poor preservation and handling of food materials, lack of general cleanliness and lack of any valid health cards for workers, he said.

Out of 1,394 food and water samples taken for testing, 854 samples were found to be good while 540 were of poor quality, the report said.

During the inspections, municipal officers also discovered a number of other utilities in violation of the law such as dress designer shops, fuel stations, tire changing workshops and shops selling jewelry. The violations included lack of a license or failure to renew the current one, the display of goods outside the shops, poor hygiene and the practice of unlicensed activities.

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Syrian Town erupts after Israeli forces enter Beit Jinn; heavy casualties reported

News Network

November 28,2025

Several Syrians were killed and more than two dozen others injured in Israeli strikes on the outskirts of Damascus, amid intensified incursions by the occupying regime since the fall of former president Bashar al-Assad and the rise of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rule.

Syrian state TV reported that the casualties occurred during an overnight Israeli assault involving helicopters and drones on the town of Beit Jinn in the Damascus countryside. The attack followed an Israeli military unit’s entry into the town, where they were surrounded by local residents, leading to gunfire and direct confrontations.

According to the report, “The occupation army’s helicopters and artillery shelled Beit Jinn, located at the foothills of Mount Hermon, resulting in 13 martyrs and 25 injured civilians.” The broadcaster did not specify the full extent of damage.

Al-Ikhbariyah Syria confirmed that the shelling coincided with Israeli soldiers entering Beit Jinn, while artillery pounded surrounding areas. The broadcaster stated that the escalation began after local residents clashed with an Israeli patrol that had infiltrated the southern town and “kidnapped” three young men.

Following a two-hour exchange of heavy fire, Israeli forces withdrew and repositioned on the hill of Butt al-Warda at the town’s outskirts.

Israeli media acknowledged that six soldiers were wounded in the clashes—three of them seriously—describing the confrontation as a “sudden ambush” that forced the deployment of reserve units and air support to secure an exit route. No further details were provided.

The aggression has fueled renewed displacement from Beit Jinn, with residents fleeing to nearby villages amid increasingly frequent Israeli attacks.

The raid came just a day after Israeli troops carried out another ground incursion into Umm al-Luqas village in Quneitra province. According to SANA, an Israeli unit in four vehicles entered the village, raided several homes, and later withdrew.

Syria condemned the repeated incursions as violations of the 1974 Disengagement Agreement and UN resolutions, urging the international community to enforce compliance and pressure Israel to halt its operations and withdraw fully.

Israel has expanded its attacks across Syrian territory following the collapse of the Assad government last year. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly instructed his forces to push deeper into Syrian territory and seize strategic positions.

Meanwhile, critics say the HTS-led interim government’s inaction and growing normalization gestures toward Israel have emboldened Tel Aviv to intensify its military operations. HTS, formerly linked to al-Qaeda, seized control of Damascus last December, formally ending Assad’s rule.

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