More than 65 injured, many in critical condition as ambulances, helicopters evacuating victims from largest gathering held in Israel since COVID outbreak; IDF sends rescue team
Updated: Apr 30 2021, 12:11 ET
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AT least 45 people were killed and 150 injured when they were crushed at a crowded annual religious festival in northern Israel.
The stampede happened at the celebrations of Lag B Omer at Mount Meron, the first legal mass religious gathering since Israel lifted Covid restrictions.
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What is the Lag B Omer festival?
Lag B Omer in Israel is a time for outdoor celebrations.
Large crowds traditionally light bonfires, pray and dance as part of the yearly event.
Lag B Omer in 2021 was to be marked from sundown on April 29 until April 30.
From a religious perspective, celebrations are focused around the tomb of the Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai (Rashbi) at Mount Meron.
Some 20,000 people streamed down a narrow walkway between two walls during the event. On the ground was slick metal flooring, which caused some people to fall underfoot during the rush for the exit.
צפיפות בלתי נתפסת: תיעוד הרגעים לפני האסון בהר מירון. פינוי הנפגעים טרם הסתיים@rubih67pic.twitter.com/a6iiK2NPl1
Witnesses and survivors described the horror.
“We were going in to see the bonfire lighting, suddenly there was a wave coming out. Our bodies were swept along by themselves. People were thrown up in the air, others were crushed on the ground,” David, a survivor, told the Ynet news site.
“There was a kid there who kept pinching my leg, fighting for his life. We waited to be rescued for 15-20 minutes in this crazy, terrible crush. it was awful.”
Hundreds of Haredim at a funeral in Jerusalem for one of the victims of the Meron tragedy, April 30, 2021 (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
In a sign of mourning for one who lost a relative, a man cuts the shirt of the four-year-old son of Yehuda Leib Rubin who died in Meron tragedy, April 30, 2021 (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
Hundreds attend the Jerusalem funeral of David Krauss in Jerusalem, one of the victims of the Meron tragedy, April 30, 2021 (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
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)
In the ensuing crush, he remained conscious even as others apparently died around him.
“I saw all the bodies. I saw bodies on me, under me,” he said.
“I thought I was going to die,” Ba’al Haness said, explaining that he was left struggling to breathe for around five minutes, buried in the mass of bodies. In what he thought were his final moments, the religious teenager said he prayed to God.
Eventually, police reached him and began pulling people out from on top of him.
Ba’al Haness said he was eventually brought out to a military vehicle to be taken away from treatment.