Some 800 Palestinians will Perform Umrah ,the first time since 2014 Egyptian authorities have granted visas for such a trip.
Security sources on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing confirmed it was the first such permission for Umrah since the start of Egyptian military operations in northern Sinai in 2014.
Palestinians in the enclaveย have been living for more than a decade under a land, seaย 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 relativesย or seek medical treatment.
Following discussions between the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) and Egyptian officials, the first convoy forย Umrah willย set out this Sunday.
Umrah 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.
The last time Palestinians from Gaza visited mecca for Umrah was in 2014, althoughย 6,600 people from East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip travelled to Saudi Arabia for theย Hajj pilgrimage in 2018.
Since 2014, reports have emergedย each year that Egyptian authorities would allow Palestinians from theย Gaza Strip to travel through the Rafah crossing into Egypt and fly from Cairo to Saudi Arabia.
But each time, Egypt did not issue any permits, citing โsecurity risksโ in the Sinai Peninsula, where the Egyptian army have been fighting various armed groupsย since 2011.
This 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 Agenciesโ Society in Gaza, told MEE.
In November, an agreement was made between the PAย and Egyptian officials to allow 800 Palestinians perย week, a total of 3,200 each month, to travel through the Rafah crossing, for three months until next May.
โWe 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,โ Abu Mazkourย said.
Palestinians 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 occupiedย East Jerusalem travel on documents issued by Jordan or Israel.
Risky journey
โAt 8am on Sunday, 800ย people will gather at the Rafah crossing, and at 9amย the Egyptian side of the terminal opens,โย Abu Mazkour said.
โWe 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.โ
The journey to reach Mecca will take an estimated 48 hours andย coverย a total of 1,650km.
The most dangerous and risky stretch of the journey willย be the 371km on the al-Arish and al-Qantara roads in the north of the embattled Sinai peninsula.
โThis route would take us 12 hours by busย to cross because of the security measures in Sinai and the checkpoints,โย Abu Mazkour said.
โIn the past, al-Arish and al-Qantara took just five hours to reach Cairo.โ
In 2014, attacks on the Egyptian army and security forces reached a high point when 31 Egyptian soldiers were killed in October of that year.
Abu Mazkour said that Egyptian officials told them in 2014 that due to โsecurity risksโย they could not guarantee the protection of Palestinian Umrah buses on Sinaiโs land, and thus travel permits for Umrah agencies would not be supplied.
Speakingย to MEE last month, Egyptian soldiers described Sinai as โtheirย Vietnamโ.
On 16 February,ย 15 Egyptianย soldiersย and seven fightersย were killedย in armed clashes in the north of Sinai, an indication that Egyptian security forces are struggling to control the peninsula.
Despite 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.
โWe understand the risks in Sinai. It is a long convoy of buses, and we need military vehicles to accompany us as theyย did between 2011 and 2014,โ Abu Mazkour said.
Fourteen nights in Mecca and Medina
A Palestinian hugs a relative prior to boarding a bus at the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt on Sunday before crossing to depart for the holy city of Makkah to perform Umrah for the first time since 2014.
The Umrah season, which started in September, has been disrupted by a Saudi measure that restricted Palestiniansโ right to get visas on temporary travel documents to travel to Saudi Arabia.
The 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.
An average of 50,000 to 70,000 people from East Jerusalem and the West Bank undertake the Umrah pilgrimage annually.
In 2014, between 20,000 and 30,000 people from Gaza Strip went to Mecca for Umrah.
Abu Hamza, head of the Honiaf Umrah agency in Gaza City, told MEE that this seasonโs Umrah numbers would not reach more than 10,000 people.
โI have 500 people who applied. The economic situation in Gaza is terrible. People are eager to go to Umrah, but they canโt afford it,โ Abu Hamza said.
The cost of a 14-nightย Umrah package, includingย transport, is 800 Jordanian dinars ($1,125).
The price has increased by around 200-250 dinars ($282-352) since 2014, Abu Hamza said.
โThe bus and flights tickets are the most expensive part of the package, an estimated 500 dinars [$705]โ he said.
Referenceย : Middle East Eyeย and saudi Gazette.
Written by
Ustadha Fahmina holds the Alimah sanad from two prestigious institutes and is a certified Optometrist Doctor. She teaches Tafsir, Hadith, Fiqh, Seerah to Women and Kids and is passionate about spreading authentic information about the religion of Islam. Connect with her to keep updated about her recent ebooks and projects.
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