World Union of Muslim Women Condoles Martyrdom of Hundreds of Pilgrims in Mina Incident

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The World Union of Muslim Women in a statement expressed condolences over the martyrdom of hundreds of pilgrims from different countries in a crush in Mina, near the holy city of Makkah during Hajj.

According to the website of the World Forum for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought, the union also called on international bodies to pursue the causes of the incident and help the countries that lost their pilgrims in the incident to cope with the tragedy.

On September 24, some 4700 Hajj pilgrims, including at least 465 Iranians, died in the crush in Mina, when performing the Hajj rituals.

Among them were five members of the Iranian Quran delegation to Hajj: Hassan Danesh, Amin Bavi, Mohsen Hajihassani Kargar, Foad Mash’ali and Saeed Saeedizadeh.

The tragic crush of people in Mina came nearly two weeks after tens of Hajj pilgrims were killed in another tragic incident in Makkah.

On September 11, a massive construction crane crashed into Makkah’s Grand Mosque in stormy weather, killing at least 107 people and injuring 201 others.

Saudi authorities have been blasted for their failure to ensure the safety of hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who converge on Makkah for Hajj every year.

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Two more Iranian commanders martyred in Syria

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Ahlul Bayt News Agency – Two veteran Iranian commanders have been killed while fighting against terrorist groups in Syria, reports say.

Hamid Mokhtarband and Brigadier General Farshad Hassounizadeh, both commanders with the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), were killed during the battle against Daesh Takfiri terrorists in Syria on Monday, Tasnim news agency reported.

Hassounizadeh was in Syria to defend the holy shrine of Hazrat Zeinab, the granddaughter of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him), in the country’s capital of Damascus.

The two commanders were killed few days after the killing of IRGC senior Brigadier General Hossein Hamedani by Daesh terrorists on the outskirts of Syria’s northern city of Aleppo.

Iran has sent military advisers to Syria to help in the fight against terrorists wreaking havoc in the conflict-stricken country.

The foreign-sponsored conflict in Syria, which flared in March 2011, has thus far claimed the lives of more than 250,000 people and left over one million injured, according to the United Nations.

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Defence team unable to discuss defence plan with Sheikh Ali Salman

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Ahlul Bayt News Agency – Lawyer Abdullah Al-Shamlawi, Defence panel member of Bahraini opposition leader Sheikh Ali Salman, said that the defence team was unable to “discuss defence plan” with Sheikh Ali Salman, because the team was prevented “from giving him any paper without showing it to the prison’s administration first which is against the law.”

Sheikh Salman’s second appeals hearing is expected to be held tomorrow on Wednesday (October 14, 2015).

Sheikh Salman, who has been sentenced to four years in prison, said that he wasn’t able to receive any of the case papers or a draft of his personal plea or that of the defence team, since the prison’s administration refused to allow these papers to be private between him and the defence team.

He deemed this act as a violation of the privacy of the relationship between him and his defence panel, describing the appeals hearings as “worse” than his trial in the first degree court.

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If we were sent to stars, we will be back to Al-Aqsa

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Ahlul Bayt News Agency – Head of the Islamic Movement within the Green Line Sheikh Raed Salah said Tuesday that Israel’s occupation to Jerusalem, al-Aqsa Mosque, and the Church of the Resurrection is a violation to international laws.

Sheikh Salah’s statements came during his participation at Saknin peaceful march in support of Jerusalem Intifada and in protest against Israeli Premier Benyamin Netanyahu’s incitement campaign against the Islamic Movement.

The Israeli occupation is out of law, he said, calling for its removing from occupied Jerusalem and al-Aqsa.

“The Israeli occupation is null and void because it has no legitimate sovereign.”

If you sent us to the stars, we will back to al-Aqsa, Sheikh Salah warned in reference to the Israeli arbitrary decisions against the Movement’s leaders.

The resistance will not surrender.. we will be victorious or die, Sheikh Salah quoted the great Libyan mujahid Omar Al-Mukhtar as saying.

Netanyahu has earlier vowed to “take aggressive measures against the Islamic Movement in Israel”, led by Sheikh Raed Salah.

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Israeli forces killed 6 Palestinian children within 4 days

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Ahlul Bayt News Agency – Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCIP) confirmed six Palestinian children died at the hands of Israeli forces in separate incidents across the West Bank, occupied Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip over the past four days.

Israeli forces used lethal forces to quash a protest near Gaza’s border with Israel, east of the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, on Saturday.

DCIP sources said that Marwan Hashem Barbakh, 10, died of a single gunshot wound to the chest. Another youth, Khalil Omar Othman, died from a bullet to the chest and another to the stomach. He had just turned 18 that day.

The deadly incident was the second in as many days. Israeli forces killed seven Palestinians and injured more than 60 on Friday near the border fence, according to media reports.

On Sunday, Israel carried out a predawn air strike south of Gaza City that collapsed a home on the Hassan family of four, according to witnesses. Rahaf, 3, and her pregnant mother, Nour, died. Her father, Yahya, and brother, Mohammad, 4, sustained injuries.

Late afternoon on Sunday, Israeli forces shot Ahmad Abdullah Sharaka, 14, during clashes near an army checkpoint in the West Bank town of Al-Bireh. The rubber-coated metal bullet struck him behind the left ear. Doctors at the Palestine Medical Complex pronounced him dead from a severe brain hemorrhage about an hour after he arrived.

“It’s now a matter of when the next Palestinian child fatality will occur and not if it will take place,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, Accountability Program director at DCIP. “The complete disregard for human life that Israeli soldiers exhibit suggests that the use of lethal force is their standard operating procedure whatever the circumstance.”

On Monday morning, Israeli police gunned down Mustafa Adel al-Khatib, 17, near the Old City in Jerusalem, after he allegedly attempted to stab one of their officers. DCIP is still investigating the circumstances.

The incident followed Saturday’s fatal shooting of another Palestinian teenager, Izhaq Qasem Badran, 16, who stabbed two Israeli citizens near Jerusalem’s Old City. Witnesses said that Israeli police prevented paramedics from treating him at the scene.

Israeli and Palestinian media reported that Israeli police shot dead a Palestinian boy and seriously injured another in the Israeli settlement of Pisgat Ze’ev in East Jerusalem on Monday afternoon. The police alleged they tried to stab an Israeli boy. DCIP is confirming the details.

DCIP has confirmed six child fatalities so far this month. The first among them was Abdel-Rahman Obeidallah, 13, who took a single bullet to the chest at Aida refugee camp, north of the West Bank city of Bethlehem, on October 5. A preliminary Israeli army investigation found that he was shot by mistake, according to Israeli news media.

At least 65 Palestinian children have been injured since the start of October, based on DCIP’s initial data.

In recent weeks, Israeli officials amended open-fire rules to allow Israeli forces to fire live ammunition during protests in Jerusalem when there is a “threat to life.” Previously, the regulations permitted live ammunition only when there is a direct, mortal threat to the life of a police officer or soldier.

The move comes as Israeli ministers approved harsher sentencing guidelines and fines for stone-throwers.

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Palestinians said it all, no way to go backward

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Ahlul Bayt News Agency – The Palestinian people has risen up against the Israeli occupation in every single corner of the occupied Palestinian territories after Israel’s terrorism has crossed all red lines, political bureau member of Hamas, Ezzet Resheq, said Tuesday.

Ezzet Resheq said in a press statement all endeavors brokered by international and regional parties to rescue the Israeli occupation from the mounds of dirt it has trapped itself in by stepping up crimes against the Palestinian people will just be as vain as its antecedents.

“Today, the Palestinian masses have joined forces and showed a strong determination to restore their rights and protect the holy al-Aqsa Mosque against Israel’s simmering terrorism,” he said.

Resheq called on the Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and the PA security apparatuses to back up the ongoing intifada and never yield in to the pressures exerted by such international parties as the Quartet.

Simmering clashes with the Israeli occupation army have rocked the occupied Palestinian territories over recent days and culminated in the murder of 31 Palestinian civilians, including seven children.

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More than 50 Zionists attack on Red Crescent teams since start of 3rd Intifada

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Ahlul Bayt News Agency –  The Red Crescent Society (RCS) documented on Sunday 53 attacks by the Israeli occupation army against its teams and ambulances in the occupied West Bank and al-Quds (‘Jerusalem’) since the start of the al-Quds Intifada earlier this month.

A report by the RCS said 37 emergency medical technicians were wounded and around 20 ambulances were damaged by the Israeli occupation soldiers since early October, when the latest round of attacks by the Israeli occupation army against Palestinians reached an uptick.

There are 24 cases in which RCS’ ambulances were hindered and prevented from reaching wounded Palestinians near seam zones.

The majority of attacks took place in occupied al-Quds (‘Jerusalem’).

According to the RCS these violations aim at hindering the work of its teams and preventing them from carrying out their humanitarian duty, including reaching injured persons, providing them with First Aid and ensuring their transfer to hospitals. This has increased the suffering of injured persons and their families.

The attacks also constitute a grave breach of IHL provisions which stipulate that National Societies, such as the Red Crescent, must be allowed to provide humanitarian services to those in need. Moreover, the Israeli occupation army has infringed the four Geneva Conventions by arresting Palestinians from inside PRCS’ ambulances in a crying violation of the sanctity of ambulances and of the Society’s emblem, as well as of the right of the wounded to access medical care.

The Fourth Geneva Convention in particular stipulates that the occupying power should assure access to medical services and medical personnel. These violations have forced the wounded to seek alternative means of traveling to hospitals, exacerbating their wounds and endangering their lives.

RCS called on the international community represented by political, humanitarian and relief organizations, to take practical measures to compel the occupying power to cease all attacks and violations against the wounded civilians along with RCS’ ambulances and teams.    

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Another Hezbollah commander was martyred in Syria / Photo

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Ahlul Bayt News Agency -ABNA- Martyr Mahdi Hassan Obeid, known as Haj Abu Reza, was martyred during clashes with ISIS terrorists in Syria.

Haj Abu Reza was a Hezbollah senior commander from Ansariyah village in south of Lebanon.

Two days ago also another Hezbollah commander, known as ‘Haj Maher’, was martyred during clashes with ISIS terrorists in Syria.

 

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Saudi Arabia to Triple Umrah Quotas

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While Saudi authorities have come under fire for their inability to ensure the safety of Hajj pilgrims, Riyadh has said it plans to increase Umrah (minor) Hajj quotas.

Bandar bin Mohammed bin Hamza Asaad Al Hajjar, the Saudi Minister of Hajj, said in the next Umrah season 1,250,000 visas will be issued for Umrah Hajj every month, the huffpostarabi website said.

Until last year, the number of monthly visas issued for Umrah stood at 400,000.

Experts say that by doing so, the Saudi regime is trying to make up for its budget deficit due to plummeting oil prices.

According to figures released by the International Monetary Fund, the kingdom’s budget deficit will hit a whopping figure of USD 130 billion (117 billion euros) this year.

Based on the IMF’s forecast in July, the budget deficit can be as high as 20 percent of Saudi Arabia’s gross domestic product (GDP).

Riyadh’s decision to triple Umrah Hajj visas comes as Muslim world is still waiting for explanations about the causes of the tragic events in this year’s Hajj.

On September 24, some 4,700 pilgrims were killed in a crush of people in Mina, near Makkah, when performing the Hajj rites. It marked the worst ever Hajj disaster.

The incident came nearly two weeks after tens of Hajj pilgrims were killed in another tragic incident in Makkah.

On September 11, a massive construction crane crashed into Makkah’s Grand Mosque in stormy weather, killing at least 107 people, including 11 Iranians, and injuring 201 others.

Hajj is the world’s largest annual gathering of people.

Umrah is a pilgrimage to Makkah performed by Muslims that can be undertaken at any time of the year, in contrast to Hajj that must be performed in the month of Dhul Hajja in the lunar Hijri calendar.

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