Muslim pilgrims holding umbrellas walk on the third day of the Satan stoning ritual, amid extremely hot weather, during the annual haj pilgrimage, in Mina, Saudi Arabia, on June 18, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Hundreds of the pilgrims who died in fierce heat at this year’s haj were not officially registered with the Saudi authorities, with the result that many had no access to vital services like air-conditioned buses and cool-off tents.

The deaths highlight a looming challenge for organisers as climate change takes hold in the region: the practice of requiring official permits for such services is stirring concern that unregistered pilgrims could increasingly be exposed to life-threatening temperatures.

At the same time, high prices for official haj packages are driving some Muslims to take cheaper unofficial routes to the ritual, even though these lack the crucial permits, and to exploit an easing of curbs on some other kinds of Saudi visas.

The unregistered pilgrims’ lack of a permit made it difficult to provide them with services and care, the security spokesman for Saudi’s Ministry of Interior, Colonel Talal bin Shalhoub, said in an interview on Saudi TV channel al-Arabiya.

Critics of the government say all pilgrims, whatever their status, should be protected from heat, and allege the authorities this year cracked down on unauthorised attendees.

“This focus on registered visit versus unregistered is a red herring … If you are there and you need help, you should get access to it,” said Khalid al-Jabri, a physician who worked for the Saudi security agency that oversees haj and is currently part of the Saudi opposition in exile.

Saudi Arabia’s international media office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Saudi Arabia’s health minister, Fahad Al-Jalajel said in a statement that health authorities provided services to unregistered pilgrims on 141,000 occasions during the haj.

Heat stroke risk

But he acknowledged that unregistered pilgrims “walked long distances under direct sunlight without adequate shelter or comfort”, and added that 83% of the 1,301 fatalities were among unregistered pilgrims.

Pilgrims said those without permits had to walk at times in temperatures above 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit), while most registered pilgrims were able to make much of the journey by air-conditioned bus.

A Reuters witness said he saw thousands walking on the highway near Mina, a vast tent city on the way to Mecca, rather than using buses like most registered pilgrims. Pilgrims told Reuters that Saudi officials routinely checked buses before departure to ensure only registered pilgrims were aboard.

Almost two million pilgrims made their way to Mecca this year to perform haj rites as taught by the Prophet Mohammad to his followers 14 centuries ago.

It is not known how big the influx of unauthorised pilgrims was. But Saudi Director of Public Security Mohammed bin Abdullah al-Bassami said this month the kingdom had deported 171,587 people who were not residents of Mecca, in apparent reference to people caught trying to perform haj without a permit. Heat-related deaths along the haj are not new, but climate change has made haj increasingly dangerous.

A 2021 study found that if the world warms by 1.5 C (2.7 F) above pre-industrial levels, heat stroke risk for pilgrims on the haj will be five times greater. The world is on track to reach 1.5 C of warming in the 2030s.

“It’s a situation that is only getting worse with time,” said Elfatih Eltahir, co-director of the Jameel Observatory and a professor at MIT, who published a paper on the dangers of heat stress for pilgrims in 2019.

Seeking religious tourists

Despite such worrying climate projections, Saudi Arabia has said it wants to expand the numbers of religious tourists, aiming to welcome 30 million pilgrims for haj and the year-round pilgrimage umra annually by 2030, as part of its broader strategy to wean the economy off oil.

In 2019, Saudi Arabia earned about $12 billion annually from haj and umra, according official data.

Haj tours can cost from $5,000 to $10,000 per person, and the price is part of the reason many take unofficial packages.

“Finances are…a huge factor,” said Khaled El Sherbini, the owner of an Egypt-based tour agency. He said an Egyptian could do haj “unregistered” for 30,000 or 40,000 EGP ($622-$829), a fraction of an official package costing about 300,000 EGP ($6,222.78). In 2018 a haj package would have cost about $3,000.

The kingdom is determined to protect official haj packages. Ahead of the pilgrimage, its interior ministry said those caught transporting an unregistered pilgrim would face up to six months in prison and a fine of up to 50,000 riyals ($13,000).

An Egyptian crisis unit tasked with investigating the deaths of Egyptian pilgrims said on Saturday it suspended licences of 16 tourism companies and referred them for prosecution.

Pilgrims who bought lower-end packages told Reuters they were packed into crowded tents with 80 to 200 people and limited cooling. Alia Asma, an Indian pilgrim, said that she had to walk longer distances than those who bought more expensive tours.

“The rich can afford luxurious apartments and the poor come into the tents,” said Irhan al-Alawi, the executive director of the Islamic Heritage Research Foundation.

Muslim pilgrims holding umbrellas walk on the third day of the Satan stoning ritual, amid extremely hot weather, during the annual haj pilgrimage, in Mina, Saudi Arabia, on June 18, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Hundreds of the pilgrims who died in fierce heat at this year’s haj were not officially registered with the Saudi authorities, with the result that many had no access to vital services like air-conditioned buses and cool-off tents.

The deaths highlight a looming challenge for organisers as climate change takes hold in the region: the practice of requiring official permits for such services is stirring concern that unregistered pilgrims could increasingly be exposed to life-threatening temperatures.

At the same time, high prices for official haj packages are driving some Muslims to take cheaper unofficial routes to the ritual, even though these lack the crucial permits, and to exploit an easing of curbs on some other kinds of Saudi visas.

The unregistered pilgrims’ lack of a permit made it difficult to provide them with services and care, the security spokesman for Saudi’s Ministry of Interior, Colonel Talal bin Shalhoub, said in an interview on Saudi TV channel al-Arabiya.

Critics of the government say all pilgrims, whatever their status, should be protected from heat, and allege the authorities this year cracked down on unauthorised attendees.

“This focus on registered visit versus unregistered is a red herring … If you are there and you need help, you should get access to it,” said Khalid al-Jabri, a physician who worked for the Saudi security agency that oversees haj and is currently part of the Saudi opposition in exile.

Saudi Arabia’s international media office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Saudi Arabia’s health minister, Fahad Al-Jalajel said in a statement that health authorities provided services to unregistered pilgrims on 141,000 occasions during the haj.

Heat stroke risk

But he acknowledged that unregistered pilgrims “walked long distances under direct sunlight without adequate shelter or comfort”, and added that 83% of the 1,301 fatalities were among unregistered pilgrims.

Pilgrims said those without permits had to walk at times in temperatures above 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit), while most registered pilgrims were able to make much of the journey by air-conditioned bus.

A Reuters witness said he saw thousands walking on the highway near Mina, a vast tent city on the way to Mecca, rather than using buses like most registered pilgrims. Pilgrims told Reuters that Saudi officials routinely checked buses before departure to ensure only registered pilgrims were aboard.

Almost two million pilgrims made their way to Mecca this year to perform haj rites as taught by the Prophet Mohammad to his followers 14 centuries ago.

It is not known how big the influx of unauthorised pilgrims was. But Saudi Director of Public Security Mohammed bin Abdullah al-Bassami said this month the kingdom had deported 171,587 people who were not residents of Mecca, in apparent reference to people caught trying to perform haj without a permit. Heat-related deaths along the haj are not new, but climate change has made haj increasingly dangerous.

A 2021 study found that if the world warms by 1.5 C (2.7 F) above pre-industrial levels, heat stroke risk for pilgrims on the haj will be five times greater. The world is on track to reach 1.5 C of warming in the 2030s.

“It’s a situation that is only getting worse with time,” said Elfatih Eltahir, co-director of the Jameel Observatory and a professor at MIT, who published a paper on the dangers of heat stress for pilgrims in 2019.

Seeking religious tourists

Despite such worrying climate projections, Saudi Arabia has said it wants to expand the numbers of religious tourists, aiming to welcome 30 million pilgrims for haj and the year-round pilgrimage umra annually by 2030, as part of its broader strategy to wean the economy off oil.

In 2019, Saudi Arabia earned about $12 billion annually from haj and umra, according official data.

Haj tours can cost from $5,000 to $10,000 per person, and the price is part of the reason many take unofficial packages.

“Finances are…a huge factor,” said Khaled El Sherbini, the owner of an Egypt-based tour agency. He said an Egyptian could do haj “unregistered” for 30,000 or 40,000 EGP ($622-$829), a fraction of an official package costing about 300,000 EGP ($6,222.78). In 2018 a haj package would have cost about $3,000.

The kingdom is determined to protect official haj packages. Ahead of the pilgrimage, its interior ministry said those caught transporting an unregistered pilgrim would face up to six months in prison and a fine of up to 50,000 riyals ($13,000).

An Egyptian crisis unit tasked with investigating the deaths of Egyptian pilgrims said on Saturday it suspended licences of 16 tourism companies and referred them for prosecution.

Pilgrims who bought lower-end packages told Reuters they were packed into crowded tents with 80 to 200 people and limited cooling. Alia Asma, an Indian pilgrim, said that she had to walk longer distances than those who bought more expensive tours.

“The rich can afford luxurious apartments and the poor come into the tents,” said Irhan al-Alawi, the executive director of the Islamic Heritage Research Foundation.

Muslim devotees walk around the Kaaba, Islam’s holiest shrine, at the Grand Mosque in Saudi Arabia’s holy city of Mecca. File
| Photo Credit: FADEL SENNA

The number of deaths during this year’s haj pilgrimage totaled 1,301 people, Saudi Arabia’s health minister Fahad Al-Jalajel said on Sunday.

The minister, quoted by state television, said that deaths were caused by pilgrims “walking long distances under direct sunlight without adequate shelter or comfort”.

Fatalities also included a number of elderly people and those suffering from chronic diseases. Some 83% of the fatalities were among people who were not authorized to make the pilgrimage, he said.

Muslim pilgrims holding umbrellas walk on the third day of the Satan stoning ritual, amid extremely hot weather, during the annual haj pilgrimage, in Mina, Saudi Arabia, on June 18, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

A diplomat in Saudi Arabia said on June 19 that 68 Indian nationals died during the haj pilgrimage this year marked by searing heath, bringing the overall tally to more than 600.

“We have confirmed around 68 dead… Some are because of natural causes and we had many old-age pilgrims. And some are due to the weather conditions, that’s what we assume,” the diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.

The new toll comes after two Arab diplomats told AFP on Tuesday that 550 deaths had been recorded during the haj, one of the five pillars of Islam that all Muslims with the means must perform at least once.

That figure included 323 Egyptians and 60 Jordanians, the Arab diplomats said, and one specified that nearly all the Egyptians died “because of heat”.

Fatalities have also been confirmed by Indonesia, Iran, Senegal, Tunisia and Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, though in many cases authorities have not specified the cause.

The total reported dead so far is 645, according to an AFP tally.

Last year more than 200 pilgrims were reported dead, most of them from Indonesia.

Saudi Arabia has not provided information on fatalities, though it reported more than 2,700 cases of “heat exhaustion” on Sunday alone.

The diplomat who confirmed the Indian fatalities said there were also some Indian pilgrims missing, but he declined to provide an exact number. “This happens every year… We can’t say that it is abnormally high this year,” he said.

“It’s somewhat similar to last year but we will know more in the coming days.”

For the past several years the haj has fallen during the sweltering Saudi summer.

According to a Saudi study published last month, temperatures in the area where rituals are performed are rising 0.4 degrees Celsius (0.72 degrees Fahrenheit) each decade.

Muslim pilgrims use umbrellas to shield themselves from the sun during the annual haj, in Mina, near the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on June 18, 2024. Muslim pilgrims were wrapping up the Haj pilgrimage in the deadly summer heat on Tuesday
| Photo Credit: AP

Diplomats on Tuesday said at least 550 pilgrims died during the haj, underscoring the gruelling nature of the pilgrimage which again unfolded in scorching temperatures this year.

At least 323 of those who died were Egyptians, most of them succumbing to heat-related illnesses, two Arab diplomats coordinating their countries’ responses told AFP.

“All of them (the Egyptians) died because of heat” except for one who sustained fatal injuries during a minor crowd crush, one of the diplomats said, adding the total figure came from the hospital morgue in the Al-Muaisem neighbourhood of Mecca.

At least 60 Jordanians also died, the diplomats said, up from an official tally of 41 given earlier on Tuesday by Amman. The new deaths bring the total reported so far by multiple countries to 577, according to an AFP tally. The diplomats said the total at the morgue in Al-Muaisem, one of the biggest in Mecca, was 550.

The haj is one of the five pillars of Islam and all Muslims with the means must complete it at least once.

The pilgrimage is increasingly affected by climate change, according to a Saudi study published last month that said temperatures in the area where rituals are performed were rising 0.4 degrees Celsius (0.72 degrees Fahrenheit) each decade.

Temperatures hit 51.8 degrees Celsius (125 Fahrenheit) at the Grand Mosque in Mecca on Monday, the Saudi national meteorology centre said.

Heat stress

Earlier on Tuesday, Egypt’s foreign ministry said Cairo was collaborating with Saudi authorities on search operations for Egyptians who had gone missing during the haj.

While a ministry statement said “a certain number of deaths” had occurred, it did not specify whether Egyptians were among them.

Saudi authorities have reported treating more than 2,000 pilgrims suffering from heat stress but have not updated that figure since Sunday and have not provided information on fatalities.

At least 240 pilgrims were reported dead by various countries last year, most of them Indonesians.

AFP journalists in Mina, outside Mecca, on Monday saw pilgrims pouring bottles of water over their heads as volunteers handed out cold drinks and fast-melting chocolate ice cream to help them keep cool.

Saudi officials had advised pilgrims to use umbrellas, drink plenty of water and avoid exposure to the sun during the hottest hours of the day.

But many of the haj rituals, including the prayers on Mount Arafat which took place on Saturday, involve being outdoors for hours in the daytime.

Some pilgrims described seeing motionless bodies on the roadside and ambulance services that appeared overwhelmed at times.

Around 1.8 million pilgrims took part in the haj this year, 1.6 million of them from abroad, according to Saudi authorities.

Unregistered pilgrims

Each year tens of thousands of pilgrims attempt to perform the haj through irregular channels as they cannot afford the often costly procedures for official haj visas.

This places these off-the-books pilgrims at risk as they cannot access air-conditioned facilities provided by Saudi authorities along the haj route.

One of the diplomats who spoke to AFP on Tuesday said that the Egyptian death toll was “absolutely” boosted by a large number of unregistered Egyptian pilgrims.

“Irregular pilgrims caused great chaos in the Egyptian pilgrims’ camps, causing the collapse of services,” said an Egyptian official supervising the country’s haj mission.

“The pilgrims went without food, water, or air conditioning for a long time.”

They died “from the heat because most people had no place” to take shelter.

Earlier this month, Saudi officials said they had cleared hundreds of thousands of unregistered pilgrims from Mecca ahead of the haj.

Other countries to report deaths during the haj this year include Indonesia, Iran and Senegal.

Most countries have not specified how many deaths were heat-related.

Saudi Health Minister Fahd bin Abdul Rahman Al-Jalajel said on Tuesday that health plans for the haj had “been successfully carried out”, preventing major outbreaks of disease and other public health threats, the official Saudi Press Agency reported.

Health officials “provided virtual consultations to over 5,800 pilgrims, primarily for heat-related illnesses, enabling prompt intervention and mitigating the potential for a surge in cases,” SPA said.

Masses of pilgrims on June 16 embarked on a symbolic stoning of the devil in Saudi Arabia under the soaring summer heat. The ritual marks the final days of the Haj, or Islamic pilgrimage, and the start of the Id al-Adha celebrations for Muslims around the world.

The stoning is among the final rites of the Haj, which is one of the Five Pillars of Islam. It came a day after more than 1.8 million pilgrims congregated at a sacred hill, known as Mount Ararat, outside the holy city of Mecca, which Muslim pilgrims visit to perform the annual five-day rituals of Haj

Fourteen Jordanian pilgrims have died from sunstroke during the Haj, according to Jordan’s state-run Petra news agency. The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it has coordinated with Saudi authorities to bury the dead in Saudi Arabia, or transfer them to Jordan.

Mohammed Al-Abdulaali, spokesman for the Saudi Health Ministry, told reporters that more than 2,760 pilgrims suffered from sunstroke and heat stress on Sunday alone. He said the number was likely to increase and urged attendees to avoid the sun at peak times and drink water. “Heat stress is the greatest challenge,” he said.

The pilgrims left Mount Arafat on Saturday evening to spend their night in a nearby site known as Muzdalifa, where they collected pebbles to use in the symbolic stoning of pillars representing the devil.

The pillars are in another sacred place in Mecca, called Mina, where Muslims believe Ibrahim’s faith was tested when God commanded him to sacrifice his only son Ismail. Ibrahim was prepared to submit to the command, but then God stayed his hand, sparing his son. In the Christian and Jewish versions of the story, Abraham is ordered to kill his other son, Isaac.

On Sunday morning, crowds headed on foot to the stoning areas. Some were seen pushing disabled pilgrims on wheelchairs on a multi-lane road leading to the complex housing the large pillars. Most pilgrims were seen sweltering and carrying umbrellas to protect them against the burning summer sun.

An Associated Press reporter saw many pilgrims, especially among the elderly, collapsing on the road to the pillars because of the burning heat. Security forces and medics were deployed to help, carrying those who fainted on gurneys out of the heat to ambulances or field hospitals. As the temperature spiked by midday, more people required medical help. The heat had reached to 47 C (116.6 F) in Mecca, and 46 C (114.8 F) in Mina, according to Saudi meteorological authorities.

Despite the suffocating heat, many pilgrims expressed joy at being able to complete their pilgrimage.

“Thank God, (the process) was joyful and good,” said Abdel-Moaty Abu Ghoneima, an Egyptian pilgrim. “No one wants more than this.”

Many pilgrims will spend up to three days in Mina, each casting seven pebbles at three pillars in a ritual to symbolize the casting away of evil and sin.

While in Mina, they will visit Mecca to perform their “tawaf,” or circumambulation, which is circling the Kaaba in the Grand Mosque counterclockwise seven times. Then another circumambulation, the Farewell Tawaf, will mark the end of Haj as pilgrims prepare to leave the holy city.

The rites coincide with the four-day Eid al-Adha, which means “Feast of Sacrifice,” when Muslims with financial means commemorate Ibrahim’s test of faith through slaughtering livestock and animals and distributing the meat to the poor.

Most countries marked Id al-Adha on Sunday. Others, like Indonesia, will celebrate it Monday.

President Joe Biden in a statement wished Muslims around the world a blessed Id al-Adha and noted the holiday is a time of prayer, reflection and sacrifice.

“The Haj and Id al-Adha remind us of our equality before God and the importance of community and charity — values that speak directly to the American character,” it said. “The United States is blessed to be home to millions of American Muslims who enrich our nation in countless ways, from medicine to technology, education, public service, the arts, and beyond.”

Once the Haj is over, men are expected to shave their heads and remove the shroud-like white garments worn during the pilgrimage, and women to snip a lock of hair in a sign of renewal and rebirth.

Most of the pilgrims then leave Mecca for the city of Medina, about 340 kilometers (210 miles) away, to pray in Prophet Muhammad’s tomb, the Sacred Chamber. The tomb is part of the prophet’s mosque, one of the three holiest sites in Islam, along with the Grand Mosque in Mecca and the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

All Muslims are required to make the Haj once in their lives if they are physically and financially able to do so. Many wealthy Muslims make the pilgrimage more than once. The rituals largely commemorate the accounts of Prophet Ibrahim and his son Prophet Ismail, Ismail’s mother Hajar and Prophet Muhammad, according to the Quran, Islam’s holy book.

More than 1.83 million Muslims performed Haj in 2024, Saudi Haj and Umrah Minister Tawfiq bin Fawzan al-Rabiah said in a briefing, slightly less than last year’s figures when 1.84 million made the rituals.

Most of the Haj rituals are held outdoors with little if any shade. It is set for the second week of Dhu al-Hijjah, the last month in the Islamic lunar calendar, so its time of the year varies. And this year the pilgrimage fell in the burning summer of Saudi Arabia.

This year’s Haj came against the backdrop of the devastating Israel-Hamas war, which has pushed the Middle East to the brink of a regional conflict.

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip weren’t able to travel to Mecca for Haj this year because of the closure of the Rafah crossing in May when Israel extended its ground offensive to the city on the border with Egypt. And they will not be able to celebrate the Id al-Adha as they used to do in previous years.

Dozens of Palestinians gathered Sunday morning near a destroyed mosque in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis to perform the Id prayers. They were surrounded by debris and rubble of collapsed houses. In the nearby town of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, Muslims held their prayers in a school-turned shelter. Some, including women and children, went to cemeteries to visit the graves of loved ones.

“Today, after the ninth month, more than 37,000 martyrs, more than 87,000 wounded, and hundreds of thousands of homes were destroyed,” Abdulhalim Abu Samra, a displaced Palestinian, told the AP after wrapping up the prayers in Khan Younis. “Our people live in difficult circumstances.”

Also in the occupied West Bank, Palestinians convened for the Id prayers in Ramallah, the seat of the Western-backed Palestinian Authority. “We suffer greatly and live through difficult moments with (what’s happening to) our brothers in Gaza,” said Mahmoud Mohana, a mosque imam.

In Yemen’s Houthi-held capital of Sanaa and in Iraq’s capital, Baghdad, Muslims celebrated and prayed for the war-weary Palestinians in Gaza.

“We are happy because of Id but our hearts are filled with anguish when we see our brothers in Palestine,” said Bashar al-Mashhadani, imam of al-Gilani Mosque in Baghdad. “(We) urge the Arabic and Islamic countries to support and stand beside them in this ordeal.”

In Lebanon, where the militant Hezbollah group has traded near-daily attacks with Israel, a steady stream of visitors made their way into the Palestine Martyrs Cemetery near the Shatila Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut early Sunday morning, bearing flowers and jugs of water for the graves of their loved ones, an annual tradition on the first day of Id.

Muslim pilgrims take part in the annual haj pilgrimage in Mina, Saudi Arabia, June 16, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

At least 19 Jordanian and Iranian pilgrims have died while on the haj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, authorities from their countries said on June 16, as temperatures soar in the kingdom.

“Fourteen Jordanian pilgrims died and 17 others were missing” during the performance of haj rituals, Jordan’s foreign ministry said in a statement. The Ministry later confirmed the 14 had died “after suffering sun stroke due to the extreme heat wave”.

Iranian Red Crescent chief Pirhossein Koolivand separately said “five Iranian pilgrims have lost their lives so far in Mecca and Medina during the haj this year”, without saying how they died.

The haj, one of the world’s biggest religious gatherings, is one of the five pillars of Islam and all Muslims with the means must perform it at least once. Temperatures have pushed well past 40 degrees Celsius during the annual pilgrimage that around 1.8 million Muslims are taking part in this year.

Many of the rituals are performed outdoors and on foot, creating challenges especially among the elderly.

Saudi Arabia has not provided any information on fatalities. However, the kingdom has implemented heat mitigation measures, including climate-controlled areas. It distributes water, and offers advice to pilgrims on protecting themselves from the sun.

During last year’s hajj at least 240 people — many from Indonesia — died, according to figures announced by various countries which also did not specify causes of death. More than 10,000 heat-related illnesses were recorded last year, 10% of them heat stroke, a Saudi official told AFP this week.

A Saudi study said regional temperatures were rising 0.4 C each decade, and worsening heat may be outpacing mitigation measures.

Following the footsteps of prophets beneath a burning sun, more than 1.83 million Muslims from around the world congregated on June 15 at a sacred hill in Saudi Arabia for worship and reflection amid a sweltering heat.

The ritual at Mount Arafat, known as the hill of mercy, is considered the peak of the Haj pilgrimage. It is often the most memorable for pilgrims, who stand together asking God for mercy, blessings, prosperity and good health. The hill is about 20 kilometers (12 miles) southeast of Mecca.

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Thousands of pilgrims walked here through the predawn darkness. On the slopes of the rocky hill and the surrounding area, many raised their hands in worship with tears streaming down their faces.

“For sure it is something great. It is the best day for Muslims during the year, and the best feeling that anyone can experience,” Hussein Mohammed, an Egyptian pilgrim, said as he stood on the slopes at dawn. “It is the best place for anyone hoping to be (here) on this day and at this moment.”

It’s believed that Prophet Muhammad delivered his final speech, known as the Farewell Sermon, at Mount Arafat 1,435 years ago. In the sermon, the prophet called for equality and unity among Muslims.

Ali Osman, a Spanish pilgrim, was overwhelmed, as he stepped down from the hill. He said he felt that he gained spiritual and physical strength at the sacred site.

“The place, thank God, (gives) very good energy,” he said. “I came here, thank God. It is my first time. I hope to come again in the future.”

Haj is one of the largest religious gatherings on earth. The rituals officially started Friday when pilgrims moved from Mecca’s Grand Mosque to Mina, a desert plain just outside the city.

More than 1.83 million Muslims performed Haj in 2024, Saudi Haj and Umrah Minister Tawfiq bin Fawzan al-Rabiah said in a briefing. That’s slightly less than last year’s figures when 1.84 million made the rituals.

The pilgrimage is one of the Five Pillars of Islam. All Muslims are required to make the five-day Haj at least once in their lives if they are physically and financially able to do so.

The rituals largely commemorate the Quran’s accounts of Prophet Ibrahim, his son Prophet Ismail and Ismail’s mother Hajar — or Abraham and Ismael as they are named in the Bible.

This year’s Haj came against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war, which pushed the Middle East to the brink of a regional conflict.

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip weren’t able to travel to Mecca for Haj this year because of the closure of the Rafah crossing in May, when Israel extended its ground offensive to the city on the border with Egypt.

Staving off potential protests or chants about the war during the Haj, Saudi authorities said they won’t tolerate politicizing the pilgrimage.

In his sermon Saturday at the sprawling, six-minaret Namera mosque in Arafat, Saudi cleric Maher Bin Hamad al-Mu’wiqly, also cautioned about politicizing Haj.

However, he urged pilgrims to pray for the Palestinians who have been “harmed and hurt by their enemy” that killed them, and “deprived them of what they need from food, medicine and clothing.” He didn’t mention Israel in his sermon.

The war has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians there, according to Gaza health officials, while hundreds of others have been killed in Israeli operations in the West Bank. It began after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostage.

The time of year when the Haj takes place varies, given that it is set for five days in the second week of Dhu al-Hijjah, the last month in the Islamic lunar calendar.

Most of the Haj rituals are held outdoors with little if any shade. When it falls in the summer months, temperatures can soar to over 40 C The Health Ministry has cautioned that temperatures at the holy sites could reach 48 C (118 F) and urged pilgrims to use umbrellas and drink more water to stay hydrated.

Most of the pilgrims at Mount Arafat carried umbrellas, while others sat in the shade. Many were seen splashing water on their faces and bodies. And, as at Mina and the Grand Mosque, cooling stations on the roads leading to the hill and in its surrounding areas sprayed pilgrims with water to help fight the heat, which had already climbed to 47 C (116.6 F) at Mount Arafat, according to Saudi metrological authorities.

Saudi Health Minister Fahd bin Abdurrahman Al-Jalajel told The Associated Press that more than 150 pilgrims have been treated for heat exhaustion. He urged pilgrims to drink water and carry umbrellas as they perform Haj’s rituals.

As pilgrims perform their worships, contracted migrant cleaners with lime-green jumpsuits were collecting empty water bottles and other trash around Mount Arafat.

At sunset Saturday, pilgrims left Mount Arafat, heading to a nearby site known as Muzdalifa to collect pebbles that they will use in the symbolic stoning of pillars representing the devil back in Mina. Many walked, while others were transported there by buses.

Pilgrims then return to Mina for three days, coinciding with the festive Eid al-Adha holiday, when financially able Muslims around the world slaughter livestock and distribute the meat to poor people. Afterward, they return to Mecca for a final circumambulation, known as Farewell Tawaf.

Once the Haj is over, men are expected to shave their heads, and women to snip a lock of hair in a sign of renewal. Most of the pilgrims then leave Mecca for the city of Medina, about 340 kilometers (210 miles) away, to pray in Prophet Muhammad’s tomb, the Sacred Chamber. The tomb is part of the prophet’s mosque, which is one of the three holiest sites in Islam, along with the Grand Mosque in Mecca and the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.