Suspense surrounds names of low-cost Haj operators

August 18, 2014

Jeddah, Aug 18: The Haj Ministry is all set to hand over accommodation blocks in Mina to low-cost Haj operators ahead of the annual pilgrimage.

The ministry, however, has still not announced the names of the operators who have been allotted the housing, which enables local pilgrims to perform Haj at reduced costs.

Mina Hajj

The Civil Defense, Saudi Electricity Company (SEC), National Water Company (NWC) and other agencies finalized site inspections last week. Haj Minister Bandar Hajar also inspected the site.

“Providers are not allowed to modify structures allotted to them and are required to provide a comprehensive security system to prevent unauthorized entry into housing units meant for low-cost pilgrims,” said Sahil Al-Sabyan, a senior official at the Haj Ministry.

Around 41,000 pilgrims within the Kingdom will be performing Haj this year under the scheme, which was introduced by the ministry last year. More than 17,000 pilgrims were able to benefit from the scheme the first time it ran.

The 50 percent reduction in the quota of local pilgrims triggered a price war last year, prompting the ministry to focus more on low-cost accommodation this year.

The 41,000 pilgrims will be distributed among 62 operators.

Many pilgrims have expressed frustration over the fact that the names of the operators of low-cost Haj has not been announced.

“I hope to perform Haj if I qualify for the low-cost category, otherwise I will just go home on vacation,” said Mohammed Ali Azad, an Indian expatriate.

“I also tried to qualify last year, but was unable to find any low-cost operators despite reading ads in the media. Unfortunately, the issue seems as unclear this year too.”

The low-cost Haj scheme is divided into eight categories, ranging from SR1,500 for an e-class package to SR7,500 for the a-class category depending on the Haj services provided in each package.

The Haj Ministry has made arrangements for a total of 168,000 to perform Haj this year.

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News Network
September 24,2024

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The Israeli regime’s warplanes have conducted extensive airstrikes against towns and villages across Lebanon, killing at least 492 people.

Lebanon’s health ministry announced the death toll on Monday, saying the victims included 35 children and 58 women.

The ministry said at least 1,645 others had also been wounded in the attacks that targeted the areas earlier in the day.

Lebanon’s health minister Firass Abiad said that the health ministry is working to ensure those injured in Israeli strikes are getting the health care they need.

The health minister said he had asked hospitals to stop taking regular, light cases to make space for the wounded from the south.

“We working on directives for the first-aid centres to be turned into places that can receive the wounded. The displaced people who have cancer, kidney failure and other chronic diseases, we have the plan to continue their treatment in different medical centers,” he said.

The country’s media outlets said the aircraft had bombed all the towns and villages lying on the southern border as well as their surroundings.

Israeli warplanes also reportedly targeted eastern Lebanese areas, including the Bekaa Valley and Baalbek.

Lebanese sources said the airstrikes had targeted a total of more than 40 areas in Lebanon during the attacks.

The Sheikh of the Druze community reached out to the Deputy Head of the Supreme Islamic Shia Council and expressed solidarity and reaffirmed support for the people of southern Lebanon, the southern suburbs, and the Bekaa during this critical period for the country.

The Commissioner of Marjayoun-Hassbaya in the Muslim Scouts, Sheikh Hussein Al-Nader, was killed in an Israeli airstrike that targeted his home in the town of Dibbine, Marjayoun district, South Lebanon.

Three people were injured in an Israeli airstrike targeting the Deir El-Zahrani highway, in South Lebanon.

A family of four was killed in Hermel, Bekaa, due to the recent Israeli airstrikes.

Israeli media outlets, meanwhile, alleged that the attacks had hit locations lying as far as 125 kilometers (77 miles) inside the Lebanese territory.

Israeli military spokesman Danieh Hagari said the regime "will engage in [more] extensive and precise strikes” against Lebanon, adding that the attacks would "go on for the near future.”

The regime has markedly intensified its attacks against the country since October 7, when it launched a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement has responded with numerous strikes against the occupied Palestinian territories as a means of both retaliating against the regime and displaying support for the war-hit Gazans.

On Sunday, the group staged its farthest-reaching strikes against the territories since October, firing scores of rockets against the Ramat David Airbase, 20 kilometers (12 miles) southeast of the city of Haifa, and the Rafael weapons manufacturing facility in the Zevulun area north of the city.

It described the strike against the facility as its “initial response” to the regime’s detonation of thousands of booby-trapped pagers and walkie-talkie radios that killed at least 39 people and wounded 3,000 others across Lebanon over Tuesday and Wednesday.

Also on Sunday, Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem said the movement was in a "new phase" in its battle against the regime.

"Threats will not stop us... We are ready to face all military possibilities,” he noted.

Qassem made the remarks while attending the funeral of Ibrahim Aqil, one of the group’s senior commanders.

Aqil had been martyred alongside 37 others, including three children and seven women, during an Israeli attack on a residential building in a southern suburb of Lebanon’s capital Beirut on Friday.

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News Network
September 29,2024

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Jerusalem, Oct 28: Israel said on Sunday it was carrying out new air raids against civilians and Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, after assassinating resistance group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Hezbollah confirmed on Saturday that its leader Nasrallah was assassinated in an Israeli strike a day earlier on Beirut’s southern suburbs, dealing a massive blow to the group he had led for decades.

Lebanon has declared three days of mourning for Hassan Nasrallah.

The development marks a sharp escalation in nearly a year of tit-for-tat cross-border fire between Hezbollah and Israel, and risks plunging the whole region into a wider war.

Israel continued to pound Lebanon on Sunday, with the ruthless military confirming it attacked dozens of targets in the territory of Lebanon in the last few hours.

The military has attacked hundreds of Hezbollah targets throughout Lebanon since Saturday, it said, as it seeks to disable the group’s military operations and infrastructure.

Israel has raised the prospect of a ground operation against Hezbollah, prompting widespread international concern.

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