Alwaght- Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip, for the second consecutive year, are deprived of traveling to Mecca to perform Umrah pilgrimage due to the continuous closure of Rafah border crossing with Egypt.
Palestine-based Palinfo website cited Awad Abu Mathkour, the head of Palestinian group of Haj and Umrah companies, as saying in a press conference that the closure of Rafah crossing prevented travel agents from arranging Umrah journeys for the second year.
Some 7,500 Gazans have sought to travel to Saudi Arabia, for Umrah but have been turned away. Egypt restricts travel in and out of the war-torn enclave. Egypt has shut its border with the Gaza Strip since Oct. 24, citing security concerns in its northern Sinai Peninsula.
The closure is affecting Gazans already disaffected by Tel Aive regime's 2014 war war against that killed over 2000 and destroyed thousands of homes and has displaced tens of thousands of people.
Touching on economic losses of border closure, Abu Mathkour said that 79 Hajj and Umra firms in Gaza are taking hits as the annual losses may reach one million US dollars.
" Due to border closure, 237 Palestinian workers in those companies have been deprived of work," he told, adding "Each worker is responsible for four family members in average."
Palestinian activists and officials in human rights organizations demanded the UN human rights committee to put pressure on the Egyptian authorities to guarantee the right of travel for Gazan people so that they can travel to Mecca, Muslims to perform Hajj and Umrah. They also called for forming a committee to supervise the travel of Gazan people via Rafah crossing.
