Watchdog to investigate deadly festival stampede
JERUSALEM — Israel’s governmental watchdog agency said Monday it would open an investigation into the deadly stampede at a religious festival over the weekend that left 45 ultraOrthodox Jews dead.
“This is an event that could have been prevented,” State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman told a news conference in Jerusalem. “I intend to open a special review that will investigate the circumstances that led to this disaster.“
Englman said his report would focus on the actions of decision makers, police and rescuers in the field. The move follows growing calls for an independent probe.
Englman is seen as close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who relies on the political support of ultraOrthodox parties and whose government has come under fire for allowing the mass gathering.
Some 100,000 people, mostly ultraOrthodox Jews, gathered for the Lag BaOmer festival at Mount Meron in northern Israel despite coronavirus restrictions limiting outdoor assemblies to 500 people and longstanding warnings about the safety of such gatherings. The state comptroller’s office, under one of Englman’s predecessors, issued a pair of reports in 2008 and 2011 warning that the conditions at Mount Meron were dangerous.
Early Friday, thousands of people leaving the site funneled through a narrow passageway. A slope caused people to fall, resulting in a human avalanche that killed 45.