Attractive Umrah fares trigger larger number of pilgrims to Makkah, Madinah

Arab News

October 28, 2017

Riyadh, Oct 28: Increasing numbers of Umrah pilgrims are finding their way to Makkah and Madinah as a result of an attractive Umrah fare which was brought down from SR180 ($48) to SR100 following the Hajj season.

During the Hajj season, authorities did not allow local pilgrims to perform Umrah or visit the Holy Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah.

A round-trip fare from Riyadh to Makkah by a luxury coach including accommodation in the holy city will cost only SR100 per pilgrim and passengers will not have to pay an additional charge to visit the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah.

A five-day package from Monday through Friday is also available at SR160 per person in a family and SR140 for a single.

A travel operator in the capital said here that the Umrah tours from Riyadh to Makkah/Madinah will start from 4 p.m. on Thursday afternoon and return to its point of origin on Saturday at midnight.

During the journey, three bachelors will be accommodated in a room in a three-star hotel and they have to pay separately for their breakfast. Families will be given separate rooms and children under 12 will pay half fare.

The Umrah travel is handled by government-registered operators who are spread throughout the city mainly in places such as Hai Al-Wazara, Batha, Mursalat and Manfouha. According to sources, some 300 Umrah travel operators are located in the capital, largely concentrated in the city center of Batha.

An official from the Ministry of Health said that it is advisable to take the meningitis immunization, although it is not compulsory. Elderly pilgrims are advised to go on this mini pilgrimage on medical advice and they are also advised to take their medicines on time during the pilgrimage.

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Israeli forces invade southwestern Syria, set up checkpoint in Quneitra

News Network

November 24,2025

Israeli forces have pushed over the Syrian frontier, erecting a checkpoint and stopping vehicles in the southwestern city of Quneitra, in yet another breach of the Arab country’s sovereignty.

The violation took place on Sunday, when the troops made their way across the border, setting up the outpost near the Ain al-Bayda junction in northern Quneitra, Syrian outlets reported.

According to the al-Ikhbariya paper, an Israeli detachment positioned itself at the junction, halting cars and conducting searches.

The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported that three Israeli military vehicles then moved further into the northern countryside, deploying between the town of Jubata al-Khashab and the villages of Ofaniya and Ain al-Bayda. The agency added that a separate Israeli unit mounted a new incursion in the central region, approaching the villages of Umm Batina and al-Ajraf.

Residents said such activities have surged in recent months, pointing to Israeli advances onto farmland, leveling of extensive forested areas, arrests, and spread of mobile checkpoints.

The Israeli regime began markedly increasing its military aggression against Syria last year.

The escalation coincided with increasingly ferocious onslaughts throughout the country by the so-called Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) Takfiri terrorist group, which the government of President Bashar al-Assad had confined to northwestern Syria. The HTS, however, managed to overthrow the government as the Israeli attacks would pummel the country’s civilian and defensive infrastructure.

Various reports have shown that, during the escalation, the regime conducted more than 1,000 airstrikes on the Syrian territory and over 400 ground raids into the south.

Following the collapse of the Assad government, Tel Aviv also widened its grip over the occupied Golan Heights by taking control of a demilitarized buffer zone, in defiance of a 1974 Disengagement Agreement. Earlier this month, senior Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, visited the buffer zone, prompting expressions of alarm on the part of the United Nations.

The United States, the regime’s biggest ally, has, meanwhile, been fraternizing the HTS head Abu Mohammed al-Jolani amid the widely reported prospect of rapprochement with Tel Aviv.

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