Millions start Hajj in shadow of Israel’s war on Gaza
Al Jazeera
Rituals expected to draw more than two million pilgrims this year praying for peace in Gaza, Yemen and Sudan.
More than 1.5 million Muslim pilgrims have gathered in Saudi Arabia’s Mecca for the start of Hajj, taking place this year against the harrowing backdrop of Israel’s 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’s Grand Mosque, many expressing sadness eight months into the Israel-Hamas war.
“Our brothers are dying, and we can see it with our own eyes,” said 75-year-old Zahra Benizahra from Morocco.
After more than eight months of war, Palestinians 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’s southern city of Rafah on the border with Egypt.
Palestinian 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.
