Gaza, Alray - Raed Zidan, Palestinian Mountaineering, climbed Mount Everest as part of a 64 climbers group  and raised the Palestinian flag on its top for the first time.

Tilak Padney of Nepal's Mountaineering Department said   35 foreigners accompanied by 29 Nepalese Sherpa guides reached the 29,035ft (8,850-metre) peak on Saturday morning after climbing all night from the highest camp on South Col.

The group includes the first Palestinian, the first Saudi woman and the first Qatari national to climb to the top of the world's highest mountain. The group dubbed themselves "Arabs with Altitude."

Raed Zidan was born in Kuwait to Palestinian parents who immigrated from a village near Qalqilya. Zidan, who is living in the US, is a seasoned mountaineer who had previously scaled Mount Kilimanjaro. There, as on top of Nepal, he erected a Palestinian flag, saying he dedicates his feat to Palestinians, especially those languishing in Israeli prisons.

The first people to climb Mount Everest were Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay on 29 May 1953.