Jewish festival turns deadly
Stampede at massive religious gathering leaves scores of casualties
Dozens are reported killed and scores injured during a stampede at a religious gathering in Israel.
JERUSALEM — A stampede at a religious festival attended by tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews in northern Israel killed at least 44 people and injured some 150 others early Friday, medical officials said, in one of the country’s deadliest civilian disasters.
The stampede occurred during the celebrations of Lag BaOmer at Mt. Meron. Tens of thousands of people, mostly ultra-Orthodox Jews, gather each year to honor Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, a 2nd century sage and mystic who is buried there. Large crowds traditionally light bonfires, pray and dance as part of the celebrations.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the stampede a “great tragedy” and said everyone was praying for the victims.
News reports estimated the crowd at about 100,000 people, and videos posted on social media showed scores of black-clad ultra-Orthodox men walking through narrow passages to the site.
Photos showed rows of wrapped bodies lying on the ground afterward, with dozens of ambulances at the site. The Haaretz daily newspaper quoted witnesses saying police barricades had prevented people from exiting quickly.
Eli Beer, director of the Hatzalah rescue service, said he was horrified by how crowded the event was, saying the site was equipped to handle perhaps a quarter of the number who were there.
“Close to 40 people died as a result of this tragedy,” he told a radio station.
By Friday morning, Zaka, another ambulance service, said the death toll had risen to 44. Spokesman Motti Bukchin said families were being notified and the bodies were being taken to a single location for identification. He said he expected the bodies to be buried before sundown of the Jewish Sabbath, when funerals do not take place.
The death toll matched the number of people killed in a 2010 forest fire, which is believed to be the deadliest civilian tragedy in the country’s history.
The incident happened after midnight, and the cause of the stampede was not immediately clear. Witnesses said a row of people had tripped on some stairs, causing other people to fall and sparking the stampede.
“Masses of people were pushed into the same corner and a vortex was created,” a witness, identified only by his first name, Dvir, told Army Radio. He described a terrifying sight as the first row of people fell down. He said he was in the next row of people that tripped.
“I felt like I was about to die,” he said.
Zaki Heller, spokesman for the Magen David Adom rescue service, said 150 people had been hospitalized, with several dozen in serious or critical condition. He told the station that “no one had ever dreamed” something like this could happen.
“In one moment, we went from a happy event to an immense tragedy,” he said.
The Israeli military said it had dispatched medics and search-and-rescue teams along with helicopters to assist with a “mass casualty incident.”
It was the first big religious gathering to be held legally since Israel lifted most pandemic restrictions, but authorities still warned against such a large crowd.