The Head of the Civil Aviation Authority and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the state-run Palestinian Airlines Company, Brigadier General Faiz Zaidan, announced today that, after coordination between the concerned authorities in the state of Palestine and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Palestinian Airlines was assigned to airlift 1,000 members of the Palestinian families of the Intifada martyrs as pilgrim guests of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz, at the expense of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

In a statement to the Palestinian News Agency, Zaidan said the Palestinian national carrier had made preparations to transport, on Saturday, 482 pilgrims from the Gaza Strip through al-Awdah cross-point at Rafah, to the Egyptian al-Areesh Airport and then directly to the King Abdul Aziz International Airport in Jeddah, and to transport on Sunday 518 pilgrims from the West Bank to Jericho through al-Karamah, to Amman International Airport and then to the King Abdul Aziz International Airport.

Zaidan added that these procedures were carried out after consultations involving the Palestinian ambassador in Riyadh, Saudi Arabian Airlines and Palestinian Airlines. It had been agreed that the costs of transportation by land and air, fees of cross points and airports and air tickets will be at the expense of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

He extended thanks to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques for hosting the 1,000 families of the intifada martyrs as pilgrims on this year’s Hajj which formed part of the Kingdom's continuing support for the intifada and for its Palestinian brothers.

Source: SPA