(12 Jun 2024)
FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4499991

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mecca, Saudi Arabia - 11 June 2024
1. Various top shots of pilgrims during prayers
2. Pilgrims walking around the holy site of Kaaba
3. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Ibrahim Al-Hadhari, Algerian pilgrim: ++STARTS ON PREVIOUS SHOT AND PARTIALLY OVERLAID BY SHOT 4++
“We are praying for Palestine to be free and (for Palestinians) to liberate their land and to be like other nations, to live in peace and not always to have war."
4. Tilt down from Grand Mosque to pilgrims ++NIGHT SHOT++
5. Pilgrims outside the Grand Mosque ++NIGHT SHOT++

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mecca, Saudi Arabia - 10 June 2024
6. Various of military parade ++NIGHT SHOTS++
STORYLINE:
Muslim pilgrims have been streaming into Saudi Arabia's holy city of Mecca ahead of the start of the Hajj later this week, as the annual pilgrimage returns to its monumental scale.

Saudi officials say more than 1.5 million foreign pilgrims had arrived in the country by Tuesday, the vast majority by air, from across the world.

More were expected, and hundreds of thousands of Saudis and others living in Saudi Arabia will also join them when the pilgrimage officially begins on Friday.

Saudi officials have said they expect the number of pilgrims this year to exceed 2023 figures, when more than 1.8 million people performed Hajj, approaching the pre-pandemic levels.

In 2019, more than 2.4 million Muslims made the pilgrimage.

The pilgrims included 4,200 Palestinians from the occupied West Bank who arrived in Mecca earlier this month, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs.

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip were not able to travel to Saudi Arabia for Hajj this year, because of the 8-month war between Israel and Hamas.

On Tuesday, pilgrims thronged the Grand Mosque in Mecca, performing a ritual circuit walking seven times around the Kaaba, the cube-shaped structure inside the mosque that is considered Islam's holiest site.

They wore ihrams, two unstitched sheets of white cloth that resemble a shroud.

Many were seen carrying umbrellas against the sun, in temperatures reaching 42 degrees Celsius (107 Fahrenheit) during the day on Tuesday.

At night, the vast marble court around the Kaaba was packed with the faithful, walking nearly shoulder to shoulder and often jostling with barricades set up by security forces to direct the giant flows of people in and around the Grand Mosque.

AP video shot by Bassam Hatoum Baraa Anwar and Rafiq Maqbool

===========================================================

Clients are reminded to adhere to all listed restrictions and to check the terms of their licence agreements. For further assistance, please contact the AP Archive on: Tel +44(0)2074827482 Email: info@aparchive.com.

Find out more about AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Facebook: [ Ссылка ] ​​
Instagram: [ Ссылка ]


You can license this story through AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]

свернуть