Jeddah: Some Malaysian umrah pilgrims stranded in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia have decided to purchase their own tickets to return to Malaysia after experiencing another rescheduling of their replacement Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight to Wednesday.

According to BERNAMA News Agency, one of the affected pilgrims, Mohd Nasarudin Kassim, 57, reported that their flight, MH159, which was initially scheduled to leave Prince Mohammad Bin Abdulaziz International Airport at 9.30 pm local time, faced cancellation and was postponed to Wednesday. In response to this, several pilgrims, including Mohd Nasarudin, opted to buy tickets from Saudi Airlines at their personal expense to expedite their return.

Mohd Nasarudin has arranged to depart from King Abdulaziz International Airport at 2.15 am local time on Monday and is expected to arrive at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) at 3.15 pm the same day. This situation arose after about 55 pilgrims, who were part of an umrah package under a travel agency, found themselves stranded due to the cancellation of their original flight early Saturday morning.

The delay comes amid escalating tensions in the Middle East, following attacks by the United States and Israel on Iran, which led to retaliatory missile strikes by Iran on Israeli territory and US military facilities in the region. It was reported that Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in the attack on Saturday morning.