Kingdom ravaged by rain, dust storms

January 29, 2013

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Jeddah, Jan 29: Torrential rains and dust storms have swept the Kingdom, resulting in evacuations from wadis and other threatened areas of Tabuk and the closure of Tabuk schools on Monday.

Weather forecasters are saying that the bad weather could stay around for the next couple of days.

Clearly, the hardest hit area was Tabuk where schools were also closed for the week out of concern for the safety of children and teachers.

“Due to the heavy rain in the region, we decided to suspend school classes for the safety of our students,” said Mohammad bin Abullah Al-Lhedan, general director of education in Tabuk.

At least, one death has been attributed to the weather. A baby boy died in Wadi Rawafa when he fell from the hands of his mother after the family’s car was trapped in floodwaters. Civil Defense rescued the family and recovered the child’s body, according to Prince Fahd bin Sultan, governor of Tabuk.

Some roads leading into flooded valleys in the region have been closed and residents of the southern district of Tabuk evacuated in anticipation of heavy rains. Twenty-five cars and three school buses were saved by Civil Defense, the buses as they were about to be swept away to the Salw Valley. Numerous agricultural roads connecting villages in the region were also flooded.

Col. Mamdouh Al-Anazi, spokesman for Civil Defense, said his forces had rescued 23 people, including women and children in Damj district, using helicopters on Sunday.

Al-Anazi said the civil defense had called for evacuation of the southern districts of Abu Sabaa, Kuraim and Abu Dumaik. “We have received reports of some 273 people and cars trapped in floods,” he said. The worst hit districts were Abu Sabaa, Kuraim, Raheel, Rwuaieyat and Waha. Civil Defense forces and Red Crescent officers have been camping in these areas to help victims.

At the port of Dhuba, all cruises were stopped and Naval Guards there issued warnings to fishermen and vacationers not to venture out into the sea.

Mahmoud Al-Huwaiti from Dhuba said the situation in the city has become worse as a result of the heavy rains. He urged government agencies to put more effort into containing the situation, which is on the verge of catastrophe. The Sharma Dam has collapsed and many roads have become unusable, he added.

Although Jeddah managed to avoid rainstorms yesterday, the city was swept by brisk winds and enveloped in a dust cloud that cut visibility to just a few hundred meters in some sections of the city. Rain is expected to fall on Jeddah today.

According to Hussain Al-Qahtani, spokesman for PME, the expected rains will be "at the medium level for Jeddah.”

The weather is a result of a cold air mass to the north that began exerting its influence in the north and west of the Kingdom yesterday, according to PME. Winds are expected to shift to northeasterly, which could result in temperatures falling some 5 to 10 degrees Celsius. In the northern areas of the Kingdom, temperatures could plummet to 0 degree Celsius.

PME is forecasting continued dusty weather in Makkah and Madinah for today.

In the event that power outages occur, the Saudi Electric Company warned customers to use caution and ensure the safety of all electrical devices once power is restored.

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News Network
November 26,2024

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The extremist Israeli finance minister has called for the occupation of the Gaza Strip and halving the population of the Palestinian territory that is reeling from almost 14 months of genocide.  

Bezalel Smotrich, who has a history of racist statements against Palestinians, made the controversial remarks during a conference of the Yesha Council settler group on Monday.

“We can occupy Gaza and thin the population by half within two years,” through encouraging the so-called “voluntary emigration," he said.

The racist minister also urged the Tel Aviv regime to use its favorable ties with the incoming administration of US President-elect Donald Trump to implement the plan.

“Occupying Gaza is not a dirty word,” he further claimed.

Once the success of the “voluntary emigration" is proven in the besieged Gaza Strip, it can be replicated in the occupied West Bank, he added.

Last month, Smotrich urged the full annexation of the West Bank and Gaza, asserting that Israel should unequivocally declare there would be no Palestinian state.

Israel launched its brutal Gaza onslaught on October 7, 2023, after the Palestinian Hamas resistance group carried out a historic operation against the usurping entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

However, nearly 14 months into the offensive, the Tel Aviv regime has failed to achieve its declared objectives of finding captives held in Gaza and eliminating Hamas.

So far, the occupying regime has killed at least 44,235 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 104,638 others, in Gaza. 

It has been committing the war crimes of starvation and of intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population in the besieged territory.

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News Network
November 29,2024

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The Israeli military has conducted fresh attacks on Lebanon in violation of a ceasefire agreement with the Hezbollah resistance movement and ramped up its deadly airstrikes on the Gaza Strip.

In a statement posted Thursday on X, the Lebanese army said Israeli occupation forces several times violated the truce deal just after it went into effect, and the following day.

"These breaches included aerial violations and attacks on Lebanese territory using various weapons," it added.

The Israeli military confirmed its Thursday aerial assault on southern Lebanon, adding that its forces had also opened fire towards the people who were driving to their homes in the area.

Earlier, Lebanese media reported that at least two people were wounded after Israeli tank fire hit five towns and some agricultural fields in the country's south.

"The Israeli enemy is attacking those returning to the border villages," Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said. "There are violations today by Israel, even in this form."

Israel was forced to accept a ceasefire with Hezbollah after suffering heavy losses following more than 14 months of fighting and failing to achieve its goals in its aggression on Lebanon.

The truce agreement, brokered by the United States and France, came into effect before dawn on Wednesday. It will last for 60 days in the hope of reaching a permanent cessation of hostilities.

At least 3,961 people were killed and 16,520 others injured in Israeli attacks on Lebanon.

Hezbollah opened a support front for Palestinians in Gaza only a day after Israel unleashed its war against the besieged territory in October 2023, launching numerous retaliatory attacks against Israeli targets in the occupied territories. 

In a statement that followed the ceasefire, Hezbollah vowed to continue resisting Israel and monitoring the occupation army’s withdrawal from south Lebanon “with [our] hands on the trigger” in defense of Lebanon’s sovereignty.

Hezbollah further empathized that its fighters “remain fully equipped to deal with the aspirations and assaults of the Israeli enemy."

It also reaffirmed its commitment to the Palestinian cause, noting that it will continue the path of resistance with even greater determination.

Israeli strikes on Gaza kill 42

Across the Gaza Strip, at least 42 people were killed in Israeli attacks on Thursday. 

Reports said Israeli forces stepped up their bombardment of Gaza's central areas and tanks pushed deeper into the Palestinian territory’s north and south.

Since October 2023, the Tel Aviv regime has so far killed at least 44,330 Palestinians and injured 104,933 others in its brutal Gaza onslaught.

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said at least 70 percent of those killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza were women and children.

Philippe Lazzarini said the ongoing Israeli offensive in the northern edge of Gaza has uprooted 130,000 people over the past seven weeks.

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News Network
November 17,2024

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An Israeli airstrike on the office of Syria’s Baath party in Lebanon’s capital Beirut has killed the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah's Media Relations Officer, Mohammad Afif, reports say.

Lebanon's National News Agency (NNA) reported that the Israeli raid struck the Ba'ath party’s building in central Beirut district of Ras Al-Naba'a on Sunday, adding that the strike was an attempt to assassinate the leader of the resistance media front.

According to Baath Secretary-General Ali Hijazi, Afif was having a meeting in the Baath Party headquarters when Israel carried out the attack.

"Afif did not fight with weapons and did not lead a military unit in Hezbollah. Rather, he led a media unit," he said.

Reuters, Sky News, Al Jazeera and a number of Henrew-language media reported that Afif was killed in the Israeli strike.

However, Hezbollah has not yet confirmed Afif’s death or whether he was present at the site or not.

Earlier, the Lebanese Health Ministry said at least one person was killed and three others injured after an Israeli strike targeted a central district in Beirut.

Lebanon's al-Mayadeen television network reported that five people were killed in the attack.

The latest development came after Afif said Hezbollah was behind the Caesarea operation and targeting Netanyahu’s home during a speech at the Ghobeiry area in the southern suburbs of Beirut on October 22.

This was the second assassination attempt on Afif in the last two months, after he survived an attack on the Hezbollah media relations office several weeks ago.

Israel launched a ground assault and massive air campaign against Lebanon in late September after a year of exchanging fire across the Lebanese border in parallel with the Gaza war.

At least 3,287 people have been killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon over the past year, with the vast majority in the past seven weeks. Another 14,222 have been wounded, mostly women and children.

In response to the ongoing aggression, the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah has been staging hundreds of retaliatory strikes against the occupied Palestinian territories and the Israeli forces trying to advance on southern Lebanese areas.

The movement has vowed to sustain its strikes until the regime ends the escalation.

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