(17 Jun 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mina, Saudi Arabia – 17 June 2024
1 Various of pilgrims walking with umbrellas on the walkway to the stoning site
2. Cloudy sky
3. Pilgrims arriving at the stoning site
4. Man praying
5. Various of pilgrims symbolically stoning the devil
6. Wide of pilgrims at the site
7. Pilgrims symbolically stoning the devil
8. SOUNDBITE (Arabic), Ahmad Hassan, Saudi pilgrim
“We as Saudis and Arabs are used (to such weather) but the foreign pilgrims they cannot bear such temperature, so we are trying to deliver juice, water, ice and ease the degrees of the temperature in God’s will. Thanks God”
9. Pilgrims symbolically stoning the devil
10. Pilgrims praying
11. Saudi soldier spraying water on faces of pilgrims
12. Various of pilgrims praying
13. Various of pilgrims leaving the stoning site
STORYLINE:
The sky turned cloudy and rain brought a reprieve from the stress of the desert heat for Muslim pilgrims taking part in the symbolic stoning of the devil in Mina, Saudi Arabia.
The ritual marks the final days of the Hajj, or Islamic pilgrimage, and the start of the Eid al-Adha celebrations for Muslims around the world.
The religious rites have taken place amid fierce summer heat, with temperatures reaching 48 degrees Celsius (118 degrees Fahrenheit) in Mecca and sacred sites in and around the city, according to the Saudi National Center for Metrology.
Pilgrims performed the second day of the symbolic stoning of the devil during the early morning hours of Monday, hoping to escape the noontime summer heat.
More than 2,760 pilgrims suffered from sunstroke and heat stress on Sunday alone at the start of the first round of stoning, according to the Health Ministry. Jordan announced on Sunday that 14 Jordanian pilgrims had died from heatstroke.
The number of pilgrims on the roads leading to the pillars decreased significantly on Monday morning in comparison to Sunday.
The stoning of pillars representing the devil takes place in Mina, a desert plain just outside the city of Mecca. A third day of stoning is scheduled for Tuesday, before the Farewell Tawaf, the circling of the cube-shaped Kaaba in Mecca.
The pilgrimage is one of the Five Pillars of Islam. All Muslims are required to make the five-day Hajj at least once in their lives if they are physically and financially able to do so. The Hajj rites 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.
AP video shot by Bassam Hatoum and Baraa Anwer
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