More than a million Muslim pilgrims were in Mecca Friday for the start of a hajj pilgrimage held against the grim backdrop of the Gaza war and in exhausting summer heat.
Crowds of robed worshippers will circle the Kaaba, the black cubic structure at Mecca's Grand Mosque, with many expressing sadness eight months into the Israel-Hamas war.
"Our brothers are dying, and we can see it with our own eyes," a tearful 75-year-old Zahra Benizahra from Morocco told AFP.
Belinda Elham of Indonesia, which has the world's largest Muslim population, said she would "pray every day so that what's happening in Palestine ends".
The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas's unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, which resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
The militants also seized 251 hostages. Of these, 116 remain in Gaza although the army says 41 of them are dead.
Israel in response has carried out a military offensive in Gaza that has left at least 37,232 people dead, also mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory.
Saudi King Salman issued a decree on Monday to host 1,000 pilgrims "from the families of martyrs and the wounded from the Gaza Strip", bringing to 2,000 the number of Palestinian pilgrims to be given the special honour at this year's hajj, the official Saudi Press Agency reported.
However, the Gulf kingdom's minister in charge of religious pilgrimages, Tawfiq al-Rabiah, warned last week that "no political activity" will be tolerated, and it was unclear how pilgrims might express solidarity with the Palestinians.
Bd pratidin English/Lutful Hoque
