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Northern District Commander Shimon Lavi (R) and Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai (R) at Mount Meron ahead of the tragedy, April 29, 2021 (Israel Police)
Israel Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai has asked Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit for either a state commission of inquiry into the Mount Meron disaster or some other form of official investigation of the incident last week, during which dozens of people were crushed to death, the Kan public broadcaster reported Wednesday.
There have been increasing demands for a state investigation of the tragedy during Lag B’Omer celebrations last week, in which 45 people including numerous children and teenagers were killed and over 150 were injured.
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Security officials and rescuers at the scene of a fatal crush during Lag B Omer celebrations at Mt. Meron in northern Israel, Friday, April 30, 2021. (AP Photo)
A police assessment ahead of this year’s Lag B’Omer festivities on Mount Meron warned of the dangers of overcrowding at access points as well as the possibility of structures collapsing, and specifically cited dangers surrounding the exit route where 45 people lost their lives in a crush overnight Thursday-Friday, a TV report said.
Channel 13 reported that the document warned of overcrowding in the Toldot Aharon compound, the scene of the crush, and urged that the exit route be expanded.
Moshe Natan Neta Englander, 14, and Yehoshua Englander, 9, were from Jerusalem. (courtesy)
At least a dozen children and teens younger than 18 were among 45 people killed in a stampede at a Lag B’Omer festival in northern Israel, according to a partial list of names published Saturday as the identification of victims in Israel’s deadliest civilian disaster continued.
Four Americans, a Canadian and a man from Argentina were also among those killed. Two families each lost two children. The youngest victim, Yehoshua Englander, was nine years old. His brother, Moshe Natan Neta Englander, 14, was also killed.
The other underage victims are: brothers Moshe Mordechai Elhadad, 12, and Yosef David Elhadad, 18; Yedidia Hayut, 13; Eliyahu Cohen, 16; Moshe Levy, 14; Yosef Yehuda Levy, 17; Nahman Kirshbaum, 15; Yishai Mualem, 17; Yosef Mastorov, 18; Eliezer Yitzchak Koltai, 13.