Saudi Arabia launches permit crackdown to stop heat deaths during Hajj
Saudi Arabia is cracking down on Hajj permit violations to prevent heat deaths during the pilgrimage.
Officials announced on Sunday that the authorities had stopped over 269,000 individuals without the necessary permits from entering Mecca ahead of Hajj.
Saudi officials have attributed overcrowding at the pilgrimage to permit violations, noting that deaths in previous years were often of those without a valid permit.
More than 1,300 pilgrims died in 2024 after thermometers recorded temperatures reaching 51.8 degrees Celsius.
The weather forecast is not predicting such peaks as the Hajj begins this week, but temperatures are still expected to exceed 40 degrees Celsius.
New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch
Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters
The Ministry of Health announced on Monday that it had already treated 44 cases of heatstroke after 1.4 million worshippers arrived in the kingdom.
Deputy Minister of Health Abdullah Asiri told AFP that they were preparing for the "worst-case scenario".
"The focus is on heat-related illnesses because the Hajj coincides with extreme temperatures," he said.
Asiri added a total of 50,000 medical and administrative staff had been mobilised for the Hajj, while more than 700 hospital beds were equipped with ventilators for serious cases.
Hajj is a religious obligation on all Muslims who are healthy, financially able, of sound mind and of age to perform the pilgrimage.
The pilgrimage coincides with the Eid al-Adha festival, which is Islam's most important religious event.
Due to be celebrated on 6 June this year, Eid al-Adha marks the Quranic story of Abraham's readiness to sacrifice his son Ismail.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Khaleej Times
19 minutes ago
- Khaleej Times
Rate of Gaza children suffering acute malnutrition nearly triples, survey shows
The rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition in Gaza has nearly tripled since a ceasefire earlier this year when aid flowed more freely, according to data collected by humanitarian groups and released by the U.N. on Thursday. The report was issued at a time when aid distribution in the Palestinian enclave is under intense scrutiny because of deadly shootings close to the operations of a new U.S.-backed system. After the two-month ceasefire broke down in March, Israel blockaded aid supplies into Gaza for 11 weeks, prompting a famine warning from a global hunger monitor. Israel, which has only partially lifted the blockade since, vets all aid into Gaza and accuses Hamas of stealing some of it - something the militant group denies. Around 5.8% out of nearly 50,000 children under five who were screened in the second half of May were diagnosed with acute malnutrition, an analysis by a group of U.N. and other aid agencies known as the nutrition cluster showed. This was up from 4.7% in early May and nearly three times the rate in February during a pause in fighting in the 20-month war between Israel and Hamas, the analysis said. It did not specify the exact rate in February, nor say how many children were screened. The analysis also reported an increase in severe acute malnutrition cases among children -- a life-threatening condition that compromises the immune system. It said centres to support medical complications from severe cases in north Gaza and Rafah in the south of the enclave have been forced to close, leaving children without access to lifesaving treatment. It did not give a reason for the closures but many medical centres have run out of supplies, been damaged in the war or attacked by Israel, which accuses Hamas of using them for military purposes. Hamas denies using them in this way. A Palestinian minister reported 29 starvation-related deaths among the children and elderly in just a few days last month. Separately, medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on Thursday that doctors in the Gaza Strip were donating their own blood to save their patients after scores of Palestinians were gunned down while trying to get food aid.
The National
20 minutes ago
- The National
British relatives say Israeli aid is death trap for Gazans
British Palestinians have described the challenges that their families in Gaza are going through to get food as part of a plea for tougher action by the UK government on Israel. Wafaa Shamallakh, who works as a medical interpreter in London, described how her sister Maysa in Gaza, spent hours yesterday waiting for her husband and son to return from an aid distribution point on the Netzarim border. Maysa's husband and son Joud, 15, walked for more than an hour to reach the aid distribution point, but were forced to turn back owing to the chaos they found there. 'Thousands of people were there, coming from the north and the south of Gaza, desperate to find a bag of flour, a little sugar, maybe some pasta. It was chaos. A quadcopter flew overhead shooting at crowds,' she said. Fire and smoke bombs made it difficult for them to see. Her cousin Khaled was injured. The pair returned empty-handed that day. 'My twin nieces, Dima and Rima cried when they saw their father return with nothing. But my sister Maysa was relieved, because at least they came back alive,' she said. 'This is what it means to survive in Gaza. This is their daily life, fetching food has become a battle of survival,' she said. The family were living in tents, with 'no insulation, no water, no electricity', where they cook over fires from wood collected from the rubble. 'My sister spends hours just trying to find enough work to earn a piece of bread.' The family may have two meals on a 'lucky' days, having lentil soup for breakfast, or sharing a piece of bread in the evening. Often they 'go hungry so their children can eat'. Israel has imposed a blockade on the Gaza Strip since March. A US and Israeli attempt to introduce their own aid distribution mechanism through US security contractor the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation last week has backfired. The GHF closed its distribution centres on Wednesday after several deadly shooting incidents killed scores of Palestinians and drew sharp UN condemnation. It then delayed the reopening of its aid sites on Thursday, without clarifying when they would resume service, as starvation looms in the war-ravaged enclave. People were journeying for days from different parts of Gaza to get access to food the distribution points in Rafah – but were forced to turn back owing to the scenes of chaos when they arrived. Bassem Farajallah, a British Palestinian, described how his nephew Nour travelled from Gaza city to Nusayra, from which he was then forced to walk to Rafah owing to an Israeli prohibition of vehicles there. On arrival, he found 'nothing, only danger and gunfire'. 'In the end, he managed to buy a small amount of flour for nearly 100 dollars,' he said. He was gone for three days, and Mr Farajallah described the huge emotional toll on his sister, Nour's mother, as she waited for him to return. The family has not seen meat or chicken in more than a year, and his sister a diabetic with high blood pressure, survives on bread that is stretched with salt and pasta. UK urged to take action UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer changed his tone on Gaza this week, describing the humanitarian crisis as 'intolerable' during a press conference in Scotland. Reiterating his comments in Parliament, he said on Wednesday: 'We will keep looking at further action along with our allies, including sanctions, but let me be absolutely clear: we need to get back to a ceasefire.' Though he met British Palestinians in October last year, there was a prevailing sense from the community that they were being ignored. 'I want them to look genuinely at us, to sit with us and listen and consider our demands. Listen to that community, which has families back in Gaza,' Mr Farajallah told The National. Ms Shamallakh said she felt let down by the British government's response to the conflict, which until recently supported Israel's military campaign in Gaza. The new Labour government said it would be guided by international law in its response to the conflict. Last month, it suspended new trade talks with Israel, imposed a new round of sanctions of Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank, and summoned the Israeli ambassador to the UK. But those measures were undermined by the UK Trade envoy's visit to Israel the following week. Ms Shamallakh called on the UK government to impose a full embargo, political and economic sanctions, and assert 'real pressure to bring an end to the genocide' and ensure unhindered humanitarian aid access. 'Let this be a turning point where Britain stops whispering about international law and starts upholding it, because the people of Gaza are not waiting for your sympathy, they are demanding your courage,' she said.
Middle East Eye
25 minutes ago
- Middle East Eye
Palestinian prisoner death toll rises as elderly man from Gaza dies in Israeli detention
An elderly man from Gaza has died in Israeli detention, bringing the overall death toll of Palestinian prisoners to at least 71 since 7 October 2023. Though the Israeli army had notified two Palestinian prisoner advocacy groups, the Palestinian Prisoners' Club and the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, of his death in recent days, 70-year-old Hussein Abu Habel actually died on 10 January. Forty-five of the 71 Palestinians known to have died in Israeli-run detention centres and prisons since the start of the war on Gaza were from Gaza and their identities were known. In what has been described by the two prisoner advocacy groups as the "bloodiest phase in the history of the prisoner movement" and the "most severe" in detention conditions, the total number of identified Palestinian prisoners to have died since 1967 has risen to 308. "The case of the martyr Abu Habel is added to the record of the Israeli system of brutality, which operates around the clock through a series of organised crimes to kill prisoners and detainees," the prisoner advocacy groups said in a statement. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters "These crimes constitute another aspect of the ongoing genocide and an extension of it." Torture, sexual assault, negiligence Abu Habel, who was married and the father of 11 children, was arrested on 12 November. The prisoner groups said they held Israel fully responsible for his death and demanded an international investigation into the deaths of Palestinian detainees. They said that reports on detainees and the circumstances of their deaths have been "limited to the army's narrative", as prison authorities continue to withhold some of the prisoners' bodies and have failed to disclose the cause of death. The statement emphasised that "torture crimes" constituted the "primary cause" of death for most Palestinian detainees killed since the beginning of the war on Gaza, alongside "escalating medical crimes, starvation and rape crimes". The Palestinian Prisoners' Club and the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs said the situation in Israeli prisons was taking "a more dangerous turn". According to the advocacy groups, Palestinian prisoners continue to be exposed to "systemic crimes", including starvation, torture, medical crimes and negiligence, sexual assaults, and the deliberate placing of them in poor and crowded conditions that lead to serious and contagious diseases. In a press release, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI), an NGO established to monitor the use of torture and ill-treatment by Israeli security services against Palestinians under detention, noted a gap of 144 detainees in the state's data. "The fate of these detainees is unknown, and unexplained by state authorities," the statement read. Tal Steiner, the group's executive director, called on Israeli authorities to "provide complete explanations regarding the fate of the 144 missing detainees, and to immediately change the legislation that violates the fundamental rights of detainees. "The disturbing reports of torture in detention facilities and harsh living conditions that have even led to the deaths of many detainees require immediate investigation and fundamental change in the treatment of detainees." Administrative detention and 'unlawful combatants' As of June, there are over 10,400 Palestinians held in Israeli-run prisons, not including those held under military administrative detention. With regards to Palestinians held in military prisons under administrative detention, there are 49 women, over 440 children and 3,562 men, according to the Commission of Detainees Affairs. War on Gaza: Israel imprisoned 82-year-old Palestinian woman as 'unlawful combatant' Read More » Administrative detention allows Israel's military to hold prisoners indefinitely, citing alleged secret information, without charging them or allowing them to stand trial. While the period of detention lasts six months, it can be renewed indefinitely. Access to a lawyer varies from case to case, though, and detainees don't know what the charges against them are. An additional 2,214 detainees held by military authorities are from Gaza and have been classified as "unlawful combatants". The majority of people from Gaza held under the unlawful combatant law don't have charges against them either. Steiner said the legislation "enables serious rights violations that are incompatible with democratic values and international law". Released Palestinians from Gaza have spoken of how they were interrogated about whether they supported Hamas, where they lived and other details about their lives - but not presented with a single charge. Since Israel launched a ground invasion of Gaza in late October 2023, its forces have seized hundreds of civilians from their homes or while they were fleeing fighting through "safe corridors". Some have been released after interrogation but many have been taken to undisclosed locations, including mothers separated from their babies.
