Saudi Arabia: 1.5 million join Hajj pilgrimage despite war

This year is the first time that Saudi Arabia has chosen to go ahead with the annual Hajj pilgrimage while it is also in the middle of a war that has seen direct strikes on Saudi territory.

The Hajj is a once-a-year event that draws millions of Muslims to Mecca in Saudi Arabia to perform rituals that every believer is supposed to carry out at least once in their lives, if they are able to. It is one of the largest gatherings of humans worldwide, and this year's Hajj runs between May 25 and May 29 with around 1.5 million pilgrims expected in Saudi Arabia. Over the past three years, between 1.7 and 1.8 million have attended.

Historians say that over 14 centuries, the Hajj has only ever been canceled or restricted about 40 times; the last time that happened was during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Having more than a million pilgrims descend upon one place to perform the same ritual in under a week has always been a complex logistical exercise. It has involved Saudi Arabia restricting crowds with a ticket lottery system for international pilgrims, tight security at pilgrimage sites, flights, accommodation, food and water and medical care, and all that amid high temperatures that have proven deadly in the past.

This year that exercise is being complicated by the Iran war, which began in late February when the US and Israel attacked Iran. Iran has responded by targeting the Gulf states, along with Israel.

There is a ceasefire in effect at the moment but it remains unclear how steady that is. Last weekend, Saudi Arabia intercepted three drones it says were likely launched by pro-Iran militias in Iraq.

US, European nations issue travel advisories

2026 also marks the first time the US government has urged its own citizens to reconsider participating in the pilgrimage, noting that "non-emergency US government employees were ordered to leave Saudi Arabia" in early March.

Germany, the United Kingdom and other European nations have also issued travel warnings for Saudi Arabia, strongly advising citizens against going there during the current conflict or if they do, then to monitor the situation closely. Several travel agencies in Germany that specialize in Hajj travel did not reply to DW's inquiries about how would-be pilgrims were reacting to those sorts of warnings.

But as Germany's Central Council of Muslims pointed out, in their experience pilgrims are often unaffected by current events.

"They are motivated by fulfilling a religious duty," a spokesperson for the council told DW. "For them, this is much more than a normal trip. And since planning for the journey usually takes over a year and is often associated with considerable financial commitment, made well before the outbreak of this conflict, the hurdle to canceling is very high."

The Central Council said it didn't hear about anybody from Germany canceling because of the Iran war and that, as far as they were aware, things had proceeded normally.

"While there was some uncertainty about how the situation might develop, the pilgrims stuck to their plans," the spokesperson said.

Countries that usually send the biggest contingents of pilgrims were also wary at first. For example, in March, Indonesia — which is sending 221,000 pilgrims to Hajj this year — told locals to delay their departure until there was more certainty about the outlook for the war.

But since then, Indonesia and other Muslim-majority countries have given pilgrims the go-ahead and assisted with travel and other services as usual. The Indonesian government said it has emergency evacuation plans it can activate if necessary, but this week state officials also announced they had themselves arrived in Saudi Arabia to help facilitate pilgrim services there.

Would Iran target the Hajj?

Experts say it's highly unlikely that Iran would deliberately target the pilgrimage. That would be an extremely unpopular thing to do as the sites are sacred to all Muslims and Iran is a theocracy. Additionally, around 30,000 Iranian pilgrims will be in Saudi Arabia this year, despite the war — usually Iran is able to send closer to 87,000 people.

But there are other war-related fears, mainly related to the risk of targeting mistakes or accidents.

The Saudi government recently released pictures showing batteries of Patriot missiles around holy sites, and it has talked up its layered air defense system, which features everything from high-altitude missiles to anti-drone laser weaponry.

But what happens if a missile is intercepted and debris from the interception lands near pilgrimage sites, analysts at the House of Saud media outlet, which focuses on Saudi Arabia, have asked.

"A successful Patriot intercept scatters debris across an area of several square kilometers," the outlet pointed out in an article published in April. "During Hajj, every square kilometer within 20 kilometers of the Grand Mosque will contain pilgrims."

Or, the writers continued, a drone might drift off course. Even worse, a strike on, or an accident at, Iran's nuclear reactor at Bushehr, across the Persian Gulf, would see nuclear fallout drifting toward Saudi Arabia and its millions of visitors.

"None of these scenarios require Iranian intent to strike the holy sites," the House of Saud analysts warned.

Economic impacts

The conflict in the Middle East has also had other impacts on this year's Hajj.

The pilgrimage is costing more. Jet fuel prices have risen and although governments in countries like India, Indonesia and Malaysia often negotiate flight tickets to Hajj, not all have covered cost increases demanded by airlines, The New York Times recently reported. For example, while the Indonesian government has agreed to absorb extra costs, the Indian government's Hajj organizing committee passed on a price increase of around $100 each to pilgrims, the newspaper explained.

Countries that have huge pilgrim contingents often organize a kind of airlift, with planes flying directly to Saudi Arabia. But for pilgrims coming from elsewhere, they must deal with the fact that many airlines have canceled routes to the Middle East and certain airspaces must be avoided. This can mean longer, and therefore more expensive, flights.

Fluctuating currencies and inflation have also caused more general financial problems for would-be pilgrims on a budget.

Saudi Arabia also makes it mandatory for Hajj pilgrims coming from other countries to have travel insurance. But many insurance packages don't cover military conflict or war. Those that do cover conflict zones tend to be more expensive. Some Muslim-majority countries have helped negotiate better insurance deals for their pilgrims. Without additional wartime clauses, travelers are liable for the costs of anything from injuries to flight changes due to fighting.