For the first time in five years, hundreds of Palestinian Muslims from the Gaza Strip will be able to perform the religious rituals of Umrah in the sacred city of Mecca, Middle East Eye has learned.
\nPalestinians in the enclave have been living for more than a decade under a land, sea and air blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt since 2007, which has restricted an estimated 2 million people from freely travelling abroad to study, worship, visit relatives or seek medical treatment.
\nFollowing discussions between the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) and Egyptian officials, the first convoy for Umrah will set out this Sunday.
\nUmrah is a Muslim pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia. Unlike the Hajj, Umrah is not bound to take place at a specific time of the year.
\nThe last time Palestinians from Gaza visited Mecca for Umrah was in 2014, although 6,600 people from East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip travelled to Saudi Arabia for the Hajj pilgrimage in 2018.
\nSince 2014, reports have emerged each year that Egyptian authorities would allow Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to travel through the Rafah crossing into Egypt and fly from Cairo to Saudi Arabia.
\nBut each time, Egypt did not issue any permits, citing \u201csecurity risks\u201d in the Sinai Peninsula, where the Egyptian army have been fighting various armed groups since 2011.
\nThis time, news that the Palestinians will be able to perform Umrah has been fully confirmed, Awad Abu Mazkour, the head of the Hajj and Umrah Agencies\u2019 Society in Gaza, told MEE.
\nIn November, an agreement was made between the PA and Egyptian officials to allow 800 Palestinians per week, a total of 3,200 each month, to travel through the Rafah crossing, for three months until next May.
\n\u201cWe have sent the passports to our agents in the Palestinian embassy in Cairo, who will work to process visas from the Saudi embassy and consulates,\u201d Abu Mazkour said.
\nPalestinians from the Gaza Strip, which has been governed by the Hamas movement since 2007, and the occupied West Bank travel on passports issued by the PA, while Palestinians from occupied East Jerusalem travel on documents issued by Jordan or Israel.<\/p>\n
Risky journey<\/strong> Fourteen nights in Mecca and Medina<\/strong> For the first time in five years, hundreds of Palestinian Muslims from the Gaza Strip will be able to perform the religious rituals of Umrah in the sacred city of Mecca, Middle East Eye has learned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":9772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c59-islamic-world"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\n\u201cAt 8am on Sunday, 800 people will gather at the Rafah crossing, and at 9am the Egyptian side of the terminal opens,\u201d Abu Mazkour said.
\n\u201cWe will travel by buses through Sinai to Cairo, and on the next day, we will board flights to Jeddah and then take buses to Mecca.\u201d
\nThe journey to reach Mecca will take an estimated 48 hours and cover a total of 1,650km.
\nThe most dangerous and risky stretch of the journey will be the 371km on the al-Arish and al-Qantara roads in the north of the embattled Sinai peninsula.
\n\u201cThis route would take us 12 hours by bus to cross because of the security measures in Sinai and the checkpoints,\u201d Abu Mazkour said.
\n\u201cIn the past, al-Arish and al-Qantara took just five hours to reach Cairo.\u201d
\nIn 2014, attacks on the Egyptian army and security forces reached a high point when 31 Egyptian soldiers were killed in October of that year.
\nAbu Mazkour said that Egyptian officials told them in 2014 that due to \u201csecurity risks\u201d they could not guarantee the protection of Palestinian Umrah buses on Sinai\u2019s land, and thus travel permits for Umrah agencies would not be supplied.
\nSpeaking to MEE last month, Egyptian soldiers described Sinai as \u201ctheir Vietnam\u201c.
\nOn 16 February, 15 Egyptian soldiers and seven fighters were killed in armed clashes in the north of Sinai, an indication that Egyptian security forces are struggling to control the peninsula.
\nDespite the risks, PA officials will join 18 buses on Sunday that will carry the 800 Umrah pilgrims, who will be accompanied by Egyptian security and army vehicles through Sinai for their protection.
\n\u201cWe understand the risks in Sinai. It is a long convoy of buses, and we need military vehicles to accompany us as they did between 2011 and 2014,\u201d Abu Mazkour said.<\/p>\n
\nThe Umrah season, which started in September, has been disrupted by a Saudi measure that restricted Palestinians\u2019 right to get visas on temporary travel documents to travel to Saudi Arabia.
\nThe measure was scrapped in January, after nearly five months of a visa ban that affected almost three million Palestinians in East Jerusalem, Jordan, Lebanon and Palestinians inside Israel.
\nAn average of 50,000 to 70,000 people from East Jerusalem and the West Bank undertake the Umrah pilgrimage annually.
\nIn 2014, between 20,000 and 30,000 people from Gaza Strip went to Mecca for Umrah.
\nAbu Hamza, head of the Honiaf Umrah agency in Gaza City, told MEE that this season\u2019s Umrah numbers would not reach more than 10,000 people.
\n\u201cI have 500 people who applied. The economic situation in Gaza is terrible. People are eager to go to Umrah, but they can\u2019t afford it,\u201d Abu Hamza said.
\nThe cost of a 14-night Umrah package, including transport, is 800 Jordanian dinars ($1,125).
\nThe price has increased by around 200-250 dinars ($282-352) since 2014, Abu Hamza said.
\n\u201cThe bus and flights tickets are the most expensive part of the package, an estimated 500 dinars [$705]\u201d he said.
\nAbu Hamza said that the journeys in March would be each Sunday, on 3, 10, 17 and 24 March. Palestinians would spend 11 nights in Mecca and three nights in Medina.
\n\u201cAfter May, in the month of Ramadan, the price is hiked, including flight tickets and hotel rooms,\u201d Abu Hamza said.
\nMohammed Hamdan, head of the Diouf al-Rahman Umrah agency, added that a Saudi rule implemented in 2016 requires that anyone visiting Mecca twice for Umrah had to pay a fee of 2,000 Saudi riyals ($533), which would put people off from going to Umrah again this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"