(3 Jun 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mecca, Saudi Arabia – 3 June 2025
1. Exterior of the Grand Mosque with pilgrims
2. Various of pilgrims arriving at the Grand Mosque
3. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Walid Ali Ahmed, Sudanese pilgrim:
“We ask God to grant safety, security, prosperity and generosity to Sudan and all Muslim countries, and to unite them.”
4. Man distributing bottles of water to pilgrims
5. Volunteers distributing bottles of water
6. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mohammed Sarie, volunteer:
“During these holy days, we are volunteering to deliver water to the pilgrims, God’s guests, and to provide relief from the heat.”
7. Mid of pigeons
8. Pilgrims arriving at the Grand Mosque
9. Pilgrim helping his mother on a wheelchair
STORYLINE:
A day before the start of the Hajj, Muslim pilgrims started flocking on Tuesday to the Grand Mosque in Mecca before moving to Mina the following day.
Men entered the gates of the Grand Mosque wearing Ihram clothes, consisting of two plain, unstitched pieces of white fabric, while women wore loose-fitting clothing that covered their bodies, leaving their faces and hands exposed.
They performed tawaf, circling around the Kaaba, as part of the Hajj rituals.
Sudanese pilgrim Walid Ali Ahmed hoped that security will be prevailed on his country saying, “We ask God to grant safety, security, prosperity and generosity to Sudan and all Muslim countries, and to unite them.”
There are currently more than 1.4 million Muslim pilgrims in Mecca this year practicing Hajj.
The Hajj is the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca and involves a series of religious rituals.
It’s a once-in-a-lifetime obligation for every Muslim who can afford it and is physically able to do it.
But it has been marred in recent years by concerns about extreme temperatures, with pilgrims performing their rituals outdoors in peak daylight hours.
Volunteers were seen distributing bottles of water for pilgrims amid soaring temperatures.
Historically, deaths are not uncommon at the Hajj, which has seen at times over 2 million people travel to Saudi Arabia for a five-day pilgrimage.
It has also seen fatal stampedes and other accidents.
AP video by Baraa Anwar
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