JERUSALEM — Israel’s state comptroller on Monday announced the launch of an investigation into a stampede that killed 45 pilgrims at a religious festival, saying the crush “could have been prevented.”
At least 16 children and teens were among those crushed to death in the early hours of Friday morning, a tragedy described as Israel’s worst peacetime disaster.
Tens of thousands had packed a site at Mount Meron in northern Israel for the annual pilgrimage to the tomb of reputed second-century Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, coinciding with the Lag BaOmer holiday.
The tragedy “could have been prevented, and we must now determine how,” Matanyahu Englman told journalists as he announced a…
Keep on reading: Israel chief auditor announces probe in deadly stampede