Saudi Arabia
\nMore than 1.5 million Muslim pilgrims have gathered in Saudi Arabia\u2019s Mecca for the start of Hajj, taking place this year against the harrowing backdrop of Israel\u2019s continued onslaught on the Gaza Strip.
\nThe annual pilgrimage began on Friday with crowds of robed worshippers circling the Kaaba, the black cubic structure at Mecca\u2019s Grand Mosque, many expressing sadness eight months into Israel\u2019s war on Gaza.
\n\u201cOur brothers are dying, and we can see it with our own eyes,\u201d said 75-year-old Zahra Benizahra from Morocco.
\nPalestinians in Gaza were not able to travel to Mecca this year because of the closure of the Rafah crossing in May when Israel extended its ground offensive into the strip\u2019s southern city of Rafah on the border with Egypt.
\n\u201cWe were deprived of Hajj because of the closure of the crossing and because of the war and destruction,\u201d Amna Abu Mutlaq, 75, told Al Jazeera. \u201cWe are unable to leave and every time we try to leave, they tell us that the crossing is closed and we cannot leave. They deprived us of everything.\u201d
\nPalestinian authorities said 4,200 people from the occupied West Bank had arrived in Mecca for the pilgrimage. One thousand more pilgrims, from the families of Palestinians killed or wounded in the war, who were already outside Gaza before Rafah was closed, were invited by King Salman of Saudi Arabia.
\nHowever, the Gulf kingdom\u2019s minister in charge of religious pilgrimages, Tawfiq al-Rabiah, warned last week that \u201cno political activity\u201d would be tolerated during the event.
\nThis year\u2019s Hajj has also brought Syrian pilgrims to Mecca on direct flights from Damascus for the first time in more than a decade, part of an ongoing thaw in relations between Saudi Arabia and conflict-stricken Syria.
\nSyrians in rebel-held areas used to cross the border into neighbouring Turkey in their exhausting trip to Mecca for Hajj.
\nUniting Muslims
\nSaudi authorities expect the number of pilgrims attending Hajj to exceed two million this year.
\nOne of the world\u2019s largest religious gatherings, it involves a series of rituals in Mecca and its surroundings in western Saudi Arabia that take several days to complete.
\nReporting from in front of the Great Mosque of Mecca, Al Jazeera\u2019s Hashem Ahelbarra said: \u201cWe\u2019re expecting pilgrims \u2026 to perform the Friday prayers, to go to the plains of Mina to spend the night, and then tomorrow is going to be the very highlight of the Hajj with the day that they will spend in prayers, contemplation and incantations at the valley of Arafat.
\n\u201cThis is an extremely complex operation \u2026 The Saudis are deploying massive personnel throughout this journey to ensure smooth traffic and safety for all the pilgrims,\u201d he said.
\nOne of the five pillars of Islam, Hajj must be performed at least once by all Muslims who have the means to do so.
\nSome have waited for years for the chance to make the trip, with permits allocated by Saudi authorities on a quota basis for each country.
\nNonaartina Hajipaoli, 50, told the AFP news agency she felt privileged to be among the 1,000 pilgrims who came this year from Brunei in Southeast Asia.
\n\u201cI\u2019m speechless, I can\u2019t describe what I feel,\u201d she said.
\nThe pilgrims will first perform the tawaf \u2013 circling seven times around the Kaaba.
\nThey will then head towards Mina, a valley surrounded by craggy mountains several kilometres outside Mecca, where they will spend the night in air-conditioned tents.
\nThe climax will come on Saturday with daylong prayers on Mount Arafat, where the Prophet Muhammad delivered his final sermon.
\nThe pilgrimage is a moving spiritual experience for pilgrims who believe it absolves sins and brings them closer to God, while uniting the world\u2019s more than two billion Muslims.
\nIt is also a chance to pray for peace in many conflict-stricken Arab and Muslim countries, including Yemen and Sudan, where more than a year of war between rival generals has created the world\u2019s largest displacement crisis.
\nSweltering heat
\nAs has been the case for several years, the gathering is taking place during the sweltering Saudi summer, with officials predicting average highs of 44 degrees Celsius (111 Fahrenheit).
\nMohammed al-Abdulali, spokesman for the Saudi Ministry of Health, told the AFP news agency this week there were more than 10,000 documented cases of heat-related illnesses last year, 10 percent of which were heat stroke.
\nMitigation measures this year include misting systems and heat-reflective road coverings.
\n\u201cThe authorities have been asking pilgrims to take precautionary measures amid high temperatures expected throughout the Hajj,\u201d said Al Jazeera\u2019s Ahelbarra.
\nA text message sent to pilgrims on Thursday instructed them to \u201cdrink water regularly, more than 2 litres daily\u201d and to \u201calways carry an umbrella\u201d, warning that temperatures could climb to 48C (118F).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Saudi Arabia More than 1.5 million Muslim pilgrims have gathered in Saudi Arabia\u2019s Mecca for the start of Hajj, taking place this year against the harrowing backdrop of Israel\u2019s continued onslaught on the Gaza Strip. The annual pilgrimage began on Friday with crowds of robed worshippers circling the Kaaba, the black cubic structure at Mecca\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413061,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-413045","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n