Umrah agents cash in on Ramadan

July 1, 2014

Riyadh, Jul 1: Travel operators in Riyadh will increase the prices of weekend Umrah packages from SR90 per head to SR160 from Wednesday thanks to the influx of pilgrims during Ramadan.

Demand is expected to be heavy until the end of the Ramadan season.

This year, the peak season coincides with the summer holidays. As such, a large number of vacationers, including Saudis, are expected to perform Umrah.

A leading hotelier in Makkah said that foreign pilgrims are less compared to last year thanks to factors such as the World Cup and the MERS.

“The majority of pilgrims come from the Kingdom, as well as from the Gulf countries,” he said. “Other pilgrims come from countries such as Egypt, Turkey, Algeria, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Indonesia.”

Accommodation at five-star hotels skyrockets to anywhere between SR31,000 to SR40,000 for a 10-day period near the end of Ramadan.

There are nearly 275 Umrah travel operators spread out in the capital, but their largest concentration is located in the city center in Batha.

Riyadh’s Dawah Center has arranged 45 coaches to ferry Umrah pilgrims from the capital free-of-charge.

Moulavi Ramzan from the center told Arab News that program beneficiaries are mainly singles from Asian and Arab countries.

Accommodation, transport and iftar will be given to the pilgrims, he said.

A return fare from Riyadh to Makkah by luxury coach, including accommodation in Makkah, will cost SR160 per pilgrim. An additional charge of SR20 will be incurred if the pilgrim opts to visit the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah en route to Makkah.

Accommodation can be upgraded to four-star standards for a mere SR100.

According to a sales executive from Al-Rushd, a travel operator in the city, the trip to Makkah and Madinah sets out at 4 p.m. from Riyadh on Wednesday and ends on Friday at midnight.

Each family is given a large room, while bachelors are accommodated on a sharing basis, with three pilgrims per room. Children under 12 have to pay half the fare. “We will provide three-star hotel accommodation for our customers,” he said.

Another travel agent said a five-day package to Makkah and Madinah, including travel and accommodation, will cost a pilgrim only SR250.

The offer includes a two-day stay at a three-star hotel in Madinah and another two-day lodging at a similar hotel in Makkah. The journey begins on Monday and ends on Friday.

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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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