The prime minister of Egypt announced this weekend that the government of strongman Abdel Fattah al-Sisi would shut down at least 16 travel companies implicated in sending Egyptians to the Hajj pilgrimage without proper registration, resulting in hundreds dead from heat illness this month.
Over 1,000 people participating in the Hajj, the Islamic mandatory pilgrimage to Mecca, have reportedly died this year as of Friday, prompting growing outrage at authorities in Saudi Arabia for allegedly failing to offer proper safety protocol, access to water, and other services.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Islam’s annual hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia will return to pre-pandemic levels this year after restrictions saw the annual religious commemoration curtailed over concerns about the coronavirus, authorities say.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged if he wins Tuesday’s elections, he will launch direct flights from Israel to Saudi Arabia to ease the journey for Muslim Israelis making the Hajj pilgrimage to the holy site.
Saudi Arabia lifted coronavirus restrictions in Mecca on Sunday, allowing a small number of people to visit Islam’s holiest site as part of an umrah pilgrimage for the first time in several months.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Saudi Arabia has issued guidelines for about 1,000 pilgrims who will be allowed to perform the hajj pilgrimage in Mecca later this month, an experience that will be unlike any before because of the coronavirus pandemic.
RIYADH — — Saudi Arabia is expected to scale back or call off this year’s hajj pilgrimage for the first time in its modern history, observers say, a perilous decision as coronavirus cases spike.
Riyadh — Saudi Arabia will end its nationwide coronavirus curfew from June 21, except in the holy city of Mecca, the interior ministry said Tuesday, after more than two months of stringent curbs.
TEL AVIV – In a first, Israelis citizens will now be allowed to travel to Saudi Arabia under limited circumstances relating to religion and business, Israel’s interior ministry announced Sunday.
At least 80 Muslims who participated in the annual hajj pilgrimage in Islam’s holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia over the weekend died.
Iranians who gathered in Islam’s holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia over the weekend for the annual hajj pilgrimage called for Israel’s destruction and chanted “Death to America.”
Mina (Saudi Arabia) – Thousands of cleaners are busy separating plastic from other rubbish as more than two million Muslims wrap up a pilgrimage to Mecca that presents a huge environmental challenge for Saudi Arabia.
With their palms facing the sky in supplication, and many with tears in their eyes, around 2 million people from around the world gathered Thursday in an effort to start anew, erase past sins and beg God for forgiveness and guidance in the peak day of the hajj pilgrimage.
Friday prayers normally held at hundreds of mosques in Arab towns in Israel were canceled in dozens of locations following pressure from local Muslim leaders to encourage thousands to throng the Temple Mount area.
JERUSALEM — Israel on Thursday blamed the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for helping to fuel anti-Israel incitement regarding false threats to the Temple Mount.
LONDON (AP) — The British government says six U.K. citizens have been killed and others injured in a road crash in Saudi Arabia.
Muslim pilgrims, as part of one of the last major rituals of the religious Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca and nearby holy sites in Saudi Arabia, engaged in the symbolic stoning of Satan on Monday, reports Al Arabiya.
