“I Thought I Would Die”: Israel Stampede Horror Stories

JERUSALEM.- Pilgrimage participants attended by thousands of Jews last night in Israel they are still in shock. The euphoria to celebrate the holidays as before the arrival of the coronavirus turned into terror in minutes after the rush now kills 45 and injures 150 and it is already known as one of the worst tragedies in the country’s history.

“We were at the entrance, we decided we wanted to get out but then the police blocked the door so anyone who wanted to get out couldn’t do it. In this rush, we fell on each other, I thought I was going to die, ”he told the Israeli newspaper. The Jerusalem Post a witness. “I saw the dead next to me“.

“It was getting more and more people, until the police decided to just take the fences off the side and try to rescue people,” one of those injured in the incident has since said. his hospital bed in the middle. News from KAN. “It took a long time. I remember lying on top of someone. The person was not breathing“.

The stampede occurred when large numbers of people trying to leave the scene crowded into a narrow, tunnel-like passage, witnesses and video footage said. The injured pilgrim added during a conversation with Israeli media that people started to descend stairs, falling on top of each other.

“There were screams; a desaster. Each trying to escape from the other, but they couldn’t get anyone out because it was a puzzle. I saw people, children, below me, ”the witness added to KAN.

“We were up and waiting for our friends, we were going to go dancing and stuff and all of a sudden we saw the MDA paramedics running around, and like they were doing CPR on kids,” he said. . Shlomo Katz, 36, at the Jerusalem Post.

The event concerned Lag BaOmer on Mount Merón, the first major legal religious celebration since IIsrael lifted almost all restrictions on coronavirus pandemic. The country has seen a sharp drop in infections since one of the world’s most successful vaccination campaigns began late last year.

The Vice-President of the United Hatzalah Volunteer Department, Lazar Hyman, he warned that “this is one of the worst tragedies I have ever experienced. I haven’t seen anything like it since I entered the field of emergency medicine in 2000. “

“He was blocked; I mean the morning prayers. Look at this: look what they are doing to the Jews, ”said one devotee trying to enter the tomb. The devotee insisted that the celebration should continue nonetheless, saying “we have to pray for Rabbi Shimon, we need the celebration of Rabbi Shimon.”

This morning on Zaka ambulance service said the death toll had risen to 45. His spokesperson, Motti BukchinHe explained that the families were notified and that the bodies would be transferred for identification.

Burials should take place before sundown on the Sabbath day, a day when there is no funeral, according to the spokesperson.

The number of deceased it matched those caused by a forest fire in 2010, considered the worst civil tragedy in the country’s history.

Zaki Heller, spokesperson for the national emergency service, Magen David Adom, reported that of the 150 people hospitalized, six are in critical condition.

THE NATION