Many people were crushed to death in a crowd at a religious Bonfire festival in Israel on Friday, medical officials said, in what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described as "a major Disaster".
The crushing process took place as tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews filled the tomb of Galilee of second-century scholar Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai with annual Lag B'Omer festivals featuring night prayer, mysterious songs, and dance.
Witnesses said people were suffocated or trampled down the crowded corridor, some could not be seen until the PA program announced a call for them to disperse, as crowds crowded Mount Meron disregarded COVID-19 warnings.
Helicopters took the injured to hospitals in northern Israel, said Magen David Adom (MDA). Israeli forces say rescue and rescue workers and medical teams are frustrated.
Ambulance officials described the incident as a riot and said 103 people were injured, including dozens of people killed. Channel 12 puts the death toll at 40. These included children, witnesses said.
"We were waiting for our friends, we were going in to dance and so on, and then we saw MDA paramedics passing by, like in the middle of CPR in children," Shlomo Katz, 36, told Reuters.
He then saw ambulances coming out "in a row" and saw that something was wrong, "we just walked to the side as the ambulances were driving in and out and we waited until we were able to get out a little bit."
The site is highly segregated by gender and the video we are seeing suggested that the crushing occurred in one of the men's categories.
Videos posted on social media showed bizarre scenes as Ultra-Orthodox men traversed gaps on torn metal sheets to escape that. The bodies lie flat in the hallway, covered with striped cloth.
A tourist who identified himself as Yitzhak told Channel 12 TV: "We thought maybe there was (a bomb) warned of a suspicious package. No one thought this could happen here. Happiness was mourning, great light became great darkness."
He added: "Rabbi Shimon used to say he could postpone the world ... If he could not repeal the law on the very day of his nomination, then we need to do a real soul search."
When the site was cleared, rescue workers fell to the bottom of the tracks, some crying as their comrades comforted them, according to a video distributed by medical responders.
Netanyahu called it a "catastrophe", adding on Twitter: "We all pray for the well-being of the injured."
While rescue workers were trying to evacuate the injured, police closed the site and ordered the paramedics to evacuate. The Department of Transportation has suspended roads in the area so that ambulances and passenger buses can travel smoothly. Military helicopters have caused some injuries in hospitals.
Mount Meron's tomb is considered one of the most sacred sites in the Jewish world and is the site of annual pilgrimages. The event was considered one of the largest human gatherings in Israel since the outbreak of the coronavirus more than a year ago.
Private fires in Mount Meron were closed last year due to coronavirus restrictions, but closure measures were reduced this year amid Israel's immediate COVID-19 vaccination program which saw more than 54% of people completely vaccinated.
The crushing process took place as tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews filled the tomb of Galilee of second-century scholar Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai with annual Lag B'Omer festivals featuring night prayer, mysterious songs, and dance.
Witnesses said people were suffocated or trampled down the crowded corridor, some could not be seen until the PA program announced a call for them to disperse, as crowds crowded Mount Meron disregarded COVID-19 warnings.
Helicopters took the injured to hospitals in northern Israel, said Magen David Adom (MDA). Israeli forces say rescue and rescue workers and medical teams are frustrated.
Ambulance officials described the incident as a riot and said 103 people were injured, including dozens of people killed. Channel 12 puts the death toll at 40. These included children, witnesses said.
"We were waiting for our friends, we were going in to dance and so on, and then we saw MDA paramedics passing by, like in the middle of CPR in children," Shlomo Katz, 36, told Reuters.
He then saw ambulances coming out "in a row" and saw that something was wrong, "we just walked to the side as the ambulances were driving in and out and we waited until we were able to get out a little bit."
The site is highly segregated by gender and the video we are seeing suggested that the crushing occurred in one of the men's categories.
Videos posted on social media showed bizarre scenes as Ultra-Orthodox men traversed gaps on torn metal sheets to escape that. The bodies lie flat in the hallway, covered with striped cloth.
A tourist who identified himself as Yitzhak told Channel 12 TV: "We thought maybe there was (a bomb) warned of a suspicious package. No one thought this could happen here. Happiness was mourning, great light became great darkness."
He added: "Rabbi Shimon used to say he could postpone the world ... If he could not repeal the law on the very day of his nomination, then we need to do a real soul search."
When the site was cleared, rescue workers fell to the bottom of the tracks, some crying as their comrades comforted them, according to a video distributed by medical responders.
Netanyahu called it a "catastrophe", adding on Twitter: "We all pray for the well-being of the injured."
While rescue workers were trying to evacuate the injured, police closed the site and ordered the paramedics to evacuate. The Department of Transportation has suspended roads in the area so that ambulances and passenger buses can travel smoothly. Military helicopters have caused some injuries in hospitals.
Mount Meron's tomb is considered one of the most sacred sites in the Jewish world and is the site of annual pilgrimages. The event was considered one of the largest human gatherings in Israel since the outbreak of the coronavirus more than a year ago.
Private fires in Mount Meron were closed last year due to coronavirus restrictions, but closure measures were reduced this year amid Israel's immediate COVID-19 vaccination program which saw more than 54% of people completely vaccinated.
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