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Haredi hats and broken glasses are seen at the site of the Mt. Meron disaster in northern Israel, Friday, April 30, 2021 (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)
As the initial shock and horror over Thursday night’s deadly crush at Lag B’Omer festivities on Mount Meron began to subside, focus started to turn on Friday toward the matter of who was to blame for the packed conditions at the site that led to the deaths of 45 people and the injuring of dozens of others in the fatal stampede.
Stark questions will likely be directed at political, civil and law enforcement officials involved in planning, approving and securing the event, amid talk of a potential state commission of inquiry to thoroughly investigate the disaster.
Updated: May 1 2021, 10:18 ET
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RELIGIOUS leaders pressured organisers not to limit numbers at a festival in Israel before 45 people were crushed to death, say shock reports.
Dozens died when panicked crowds funnelled into a tiny death trap tunnel at a high-profile Jewish festival late on Thursday night.
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People attempting to escape after the grandstand reportedly collapsedCredit: Reuters
The country s worst peacetime disaster unfolded at the overcrowded festival of Lag B Omer in Meron.
Now it s been been suggested religious leaders put pressure NOT to limit numbers - as it emerged more than 100,000 people eventually turned up.
Reports had previously warned large numbers posed a danger to human life and suggested that capacity should be capped at 15,000.
10 boys and teens among dead in Israel festival stampede By Associated Press
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2 Photos The body of Menachem Knoblowitz, 21, from Borough Park, Brooklyn in the United States, who died during Lag BaOmer celebrations at Mt. Meron in northern Israel, is displayed during his funeral in Jerusalem on Saturday, May 1 2021. A stampede at a religious festival attended by tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews in northern Israel killed dozens of people and injured about 150 early Friday, medical officials said. It was one of the country s deadliest civilian disasters. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit) Photo Gallery
JERUSALEM At least 10 children and teens younger than 18 were among 45 ultra-Orthodox Jews killed in a stampede at a religious 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.
British victim of Israel stampede: 24-year-old man from Manchester is named among the 45 people killed in crush amid claims Orthodox Jewish leaders put pressure on organisers NOT to limit numbers at festival
Insiders claimed there was political pressure on police to hold the event at any cost ahead of deadly crush
Reports say the head of Shas, a Haredi religious political party in Israel, asked there to be no limit of numbers
A total of 45 people were killed in the stampede at Mount Meron, Israel on Thursday, with at least 150 injured
Moshe Bergman, from Manchester,