Netanyahu’s innocent Israeli protesters boooed at the stamp site Middle East News

The Israeli prime minister called for a day of mourning on Sunday as he announced an investigation into the sentence that killed 44 people.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced a full-blown investigation into a deadly accident at a Jewish religious festival in the town of Mount Meron, which was whistled by protesting relatives of the victims.

According to Israeli media, protesters threw empty bottles and shouted insults at Netanyahu, traveling to the pilgrimage site in the north of the country, where at least 44 people were killed and another 150 injured in the Lag BaOmer celebrations.

Netanyahu said it was one of the “worst” disasters in Israel’s history, announcing Sunday as a “national day of mourning” and expressing sympathy for the families of the victims. He also met others involved in police and rescue work.

Meanwhile, President Reuven Rivlin’s office has asked those still searching for the missing to contact the presidential office. “We will make every effort to find it,” he said.

Health Minister Yuli Edelstein visited some of the injured on Friday morning at Israel’s Safiv Ziv Medical Center.

Edelstein said almost all of the victims have been identified, Israeli media reported.

Excessive crowds

According to witnesses, a large number of people trying to leave the site were piled up in a narrow tunnel-like walkway. Witnesses said people began to fall on top of each other at the end of the walkway as they were descending metal sliding stairs.

Authorities allowed 10,000 people to gather at the tomb of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, a second-century Talmudic sage, but organizers said more than 650 buses had left the country, bringing at least 30,000 pilgrims to Mount Meron.

Eli Beer, the director of the Hatzalah rescue service, said it was horrific given the crowded events that the site was equipped to properly supply a quarter of the number that was there.

About 5,000 police were deployed to secure the event, the most crowded gathering in the country in the coronavirus pandemic.

The static crowd gathered despite health officials warning them to avoid the dangers of COVID-19.