Photo (above): An Orthodox Jewish man prays after dozens of people were crushed to death at the festival of Lag B’Omer in Israel

At Least 44 Dead and 150 Orthodox Jews Injured in Lag B’Omer Religious Festival on Israel’s Mt. Meron, Say Reports (Videos)

Chris Pleasance and Katie Weston write for MailOnline that video footage captures the moments leading up to the disaster when at least 44 Orthodox Jews died and 150 were injured in a stampede during the religious festival of Lag B’Omer on Israel’s Mt. Meron.

Encapsulating the tragedy, they continue,

  • At least 44 people died and 150 were injured, some of them critically, in stampede at Jewish religious festival
  • Up to 100,000 Orthodox Jews had gathered at Mount Meron for the festival of Lag B’Omer, celebrating the life of 2nd century mystic and sage Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai who is buried at the site
  • Crush caused by ‘human avalanche’ that began when people fell in an overcrowded hallway, police have said 
  • Video taken moments before the crush shows huge crowds of people dancing along to music in an area only designed to handle 10,000  

Watch the following broadcasted reports . . .

Witnesses at the scene describe the chaos and confusion that ensued and their inability to move and escape the stampede . . .

 

David Israel in The Jewish Press captures live video coverage, describing the site in Israel as overcrowded:
 
At least 44 were killed and about 150 injured overnight Friday during the Lag B’Omer celebrations in the bonfire section of the Toldot Aharon dynasty on Mount Meron in northern Israel. Videos on social media show many hundreds of Chassidim crowded in a narrow corridor, and as one eyewitness described it, ‘In one moment everything exploded and people just fell and trampled on each other.’

Israel later adds video footage of the aftermath, explaining that

Six helicopters were called to evacuate the wounded. Fighters from the IDF rescue unit are also operating at the scene. Magen David Adom ambulances arrived from across the north to evacuate the wounded to hospitals.

Police have launched an investigation at the point where the disaster took place and estimate that about 100,000 people were crowded on the mountain at the time of the collapse – when the maximum allowance was for 10,000. The preliminary police investigation revealed that some of the people who were squeezed together slipped down the stairs, creating a human avalanche under which many were crushed.

The celebrations on Mt. Meron were stopped following the disaster, and the crowds were instructed to leave. Buses and other vehicles that were making their way to the mountain were stopped at police checkpoints and ordered to turn around. Police are urging the public not to come to the area, and announced that ‘hundreds of buses are available to transport people to train stations and central bus stations across the country and the north.’

Hundreds still gathered outside Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai’s gravesite near the area of the disaster around 7 AM on Friday. They engaged in confrontations with police and refused to be evacuated.

The celebration of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai took place with police approval and was conducted by the commander of the Northern District, Superintendent Shimon Lavi, who also present at the time of the incident. Police Commissioner Yaakov Shabtai and Minister of Internal Security Amir Ohana were also on the mountain.

The celebration began on Thursday evening and was the largest event held in Israel since the beginning of the Corona crisis.

The Times of Israel also reports . . .

Israeli rescue forces and police on a metal-floored walkway hours after a mass fatality event during the celebrations of the Jewish holiday of Lag B’Omer on Mt. Meron, in northern Israel on April 30, 2021. (David Cohen/Flash90)

Shimon Lavi says ready for investigation ‘for better or worse’; narrow pathway at site was known to be a danger, but other police officials say incident was unavoidable

By TOI STAFF | Times of Israel | April 30, 2021

The police force’s Northern District Commander Shimon Lavi, who oversaw the security arrangements for mass Lag B’Omer celebrations at Mt Meron, said Friday morning that he took responsibility for the disaster that killed at least 44 people at the site overnight, as criticism grew that the tragedy could have been prevented.

“I bear overall responsibility, for better or worse, and am ready for any investigation,” he told reporters hours after the tragedy, in which victims were crushed in a deadly stampede amid massive overcrowding.

While eyewitnesses accused police of blocking a key exit route at the bottom of a narrow metal-floored walkway, which had for years been seen as a dangerous potential bottleneck, Lavi said that the precise cause of the disaster remained unclear.
Initial indications were that the fatal crushing occurred among large numbers of ultra-Orthodox pilgrims moving through the walkway, on an incline, on the exit route from the Mt Meron site. People began to trip and fall on each other along the packed route, creating a fatal domino effect. Police for a period blocked stairs at the bottom of the walkway, Channel 12 news reported.

It wasn’t immediately clear why police may have prevented some people from leaving the scene as the disaster began to unfold — a move which would have reduced pressure on the packed crowd — but officers were apparently unaware of the severity of the situation and were trying to keep some areas clear of congregants.

Commander Shimon Lavi speaks during an exchange ceremony of the North District Police Command, on July 9, 2019. (Flash90)

There is an ongoing “complicated effort to gather evidence to reach the truth,” Lavi said, adding that police officers saved lives during the stampede, pushing through the crowds to rescue those trapped.

At least 44 people were crushed to death and more than 100 people hurt, including many in critical condition, in the stampede after midnight Thursday at the mass gathering to celebrate the Lag B’Omer holiday at the Mount Meron gravesite of the second-century sage Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai.

According to Army Radio, children were among the dead and injured.

Sharon Alroy-Preis, head of public health services at the Health Ministry, who earlier in the week had warned that mass Lag B’Omer gatherings at Meron could drive an outbreak of the coronavirus, told Army Radio that the disaster could have been averted if police had enforced the restrictions on the number of people allowed to gather.

“It was not possible to reach an agreement on who enforces the regulations at Mt. Meron,” she said. “I remind you that the number of people allowed to gather outside is restricted to 100 — it is the responsibility of the police to enforce the laws of the State of Israel.”

On Wednesday, Alroy-Preis accused the government and authorities of passing the buck on the enforcement of safety precautions at the site, albeit in the context of the pandemic.

The event appeared to be one of the worst peacetime tragedies in Israel’s history, equaling the death toll from the 2010 Mount Carmel forest fire.

A police official said dozens of participants in a concert had “slipped” while walking along the crowded walkway, causing a crushing domino effect.

Israeli rescue forces and police near a mass fatality scene during a gathering marking the Jewish holiday of Lag B’Omer on Mt. Meron, in northern Israel on April 30, 2021. (David Cohen/Flash90)

“Who will prevent the disaster during the lighting ceremony,” a headline in the ultra-Orthodox website Haredim10 read three years ago, referring to the bonfire event.

At around midnight Thursday, organizers had estimated that some 100,000 people were at the site. The huge gathering, the largest in Israel since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, had already sparked health fears.


Lisa Michelle
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