“I cry because I am deprived of Hajj.” The occupation deprives Gazans of Hajj rituals for the third year | Miscellaneous

Before the genocidal war on Gaza, in a corner of the house of the Gazan couple Awni and Ohood Baraka, preparation bags for performing the Hajj adorned their house after they had prepared for it and prepared all the necessary white Ihram clothes and prayer booklets, spending their days waiting for the moment of setting off for the Hijaz lands.

But those bags that were supposed to circumambulate with them around the Kaaba have today become piles of memories trapped under the weight of the war that has been continuing since October 2023.

Ohood Baraka says with a heavy heart that she still keeps those bags in place, and refuses to empty their contents despite the passage of years.

The dream was just around the corner; The walls of their house still bear traces of expressions of joy and congratulations written to receive well-wishers on their return from Hajj, but the joy was dampened by the stifling siege and the closure of the crossings.

Ohood adds that she lives in the hope that the crossing will be opened, but the fear creeps into her heart that death will overtake her or her deteriorating health will fail her due to illness before she touches the curtain of the Kaaba.

For his part, husband Awni Baraka tells another story of suffering that reflects the reality of thousands of Gazans. Aouni spent his years collecting Hajj costs “in piastres and dirhams,” deducting them from his daily livelihood to secure “the trip of a lifetime.”

As the genocide war and the starvation policy pursued by the occupation intensified, he found himself forced to spend those sacred savings to secure the most basic necessities of life for his family amidst the lack of food and medicine.

Aouni says bitterly: “The war has eaten up my hard-earned Hajj money, and all I have left are these bags, which represent the last glimmer of hope.”

The couple believes that depriving them of Hajj is not just a disruption to travel, but rather a collective punishment practiced by the occupation against the pilgrims of the Gaza Strip, violating all customs and covenants that guarantee freedom of worship.

According to the Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs in the Gaza Strip, more than 10,000 Palestinians from the Strip were prevented from performing the Hajj during 3 years of the Israeli war of genocide on the Strip.

The Ministry stated in a press conference today that among the deprived, 71 Palestinians died while waiting to travel to the Holy Land, amid the continued closure of the crossings and the war on the Gaza Strip.

The Ministry stressed that depriving Palestinians in Gaza of Hajj represents a violation of international conventions that guarantee freedom of worship, movement, and access to holy places, calling on the international community to “urgently intervene” to ensure that Gaza’s pilgrims are able to travel, and to work to open the crossings “for humanitarian and religious purposes.”