{"id":11226,"date":"2018-08-12T05:24:19","date_gmt":"2018-08-12T05:24:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=11226"},"modified":"2018-08-12T05:24:19","modified_gmt":"2018-08-12T05:24:19","slug":"pilgrims-embark-on-the-journey-of-their-lives-from-beirut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=11226","title":{"rendered":"Pilgrims embark on the journey of their lives from Beirut"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-io-article-url=\"http:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/1354761\/middle-east\" readability=\"91\">\n<p>\nBEIRUT:\u00a0 Departure halls at Beirut\u2019s Rafic Hariri International Airport were packed with Lebanese, Palestinian, and Syrian pilgrims as they began leaving for Saudi Arabia to perform Hajj this year.<\/p>\n<p>\nSome pilgrims arrived at the airport six hours before their flight\u2019s departure time in order to complete their travel procedures.<\/p>\n<p>\nAn estimated 12,000 pilgrims are set to leave Beirut by mid-August \u2014 7,000 Lebanese, 1,500 Palestinians and 4,000 Syrians in addition to numbers of Lebanese and non-Lebanese expatriates who stop at Beirut\u2019s airport as a transit point before they continue their journey to Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe entrances and halls of Beirut\u2019s airport, as well as the roads leading to it, have been flooded with Hajj travelers waiting to board flights operated by Middle East Airlines (MEA) and Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\nMEA has laid on 60 extra flights to carry pilgrims from Beirut to Jeddah and Madinah, in addition to its regular daily flights between Beirut and Saudi Arabia.\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" height=\"219\" src=\"http:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/sites\/default\/files\/userimages\/20\/pilgrims_embed.png\" width=\"250\"><\/p>\n<p>\nThis means that MEA will have between eight and 11 extra flights a day.<\/p>\n<p>\nSaudia, on the other hand, is operating three regular flights a day.<\/p>\n<p>\nSome of the Syrian pilgrims said they had obtained Hajj visas while in Syrian territory, and came to Rafic Hariri International Airport with organized Hajj trips.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe Syrian pilgrims arriving from Syria, especially the elderly, looked exhausted and sat on the airport\u2019s floor.<\/p>\n<p>\nMany of them wished that security and stability prevail in Syria and that the brotherly ties between the Syrian and Lebanese people, as well as their countries, become stronger.<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cThis would benefit both countries,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n<p>\nA number of Lebanese pilgrims expressed their happiness to be going on \u201cthe journey of their lives,\u201d hoping for security and stability to prevail in Lebanon and the Arab and Muslim world.<\/p>\n<p>\nThey also hoped that God would inspire Lebanese officials to unite for the sake of the supreme interest, stability and unity of Lebanon, to agree on all measures contributing to the country\u2019s stability and security.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BEIRUT:\u00a0 Departure halls at Beirut\u2019s Rafic Hariri International Airport were packed with Lebanese, Palestinian, and Syrian pilgrims as they began leaving for Saudi Arabia to perform Hajj this year. Some pilgrims arrived at the airport six hours before their flight\u2019s departure time in order to complete their travel procedures. An estimated 12,000 pilgrims are set&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":11227,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}