Judah Ari Gross is The Times of Israel's religions and Diaspora affairs correspondent.
Masses of men, women and small children have been waiting for hours to leave Mount Meron, following the deadly stampede at the pilgrimage site early this morning.
Police officers say they have almost no control over the massive bussing operation underway at the site, which is being rolled out haphazardly and with evident mismanagement.
With no clear signs or directions, people are stopping passing buses to ask their destinations — Jerusalem, Beit Shemesh, Safed — causing massive traffic jams and further confusion.
“We have no direction. There’s someone down the hill who’s supposed to be in charge, but I don’t know. We’re trying to keep people back to let the buses through but…” a police officer tells The Times of Israel, before trailing off with a shrug.
As people have been stranded here for hours, individuals have begun passing out water bottles to keep people from dehydrating.
Orthodox Jews are pictured on April 30, 2021 following a stampede in Meron which took place overnight during a religious gathering in the northern Israeli town near the reputed tomb of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, a second-century Talmudic sage, where mainly ultra-Orthodox Jews flock to mark the Lag B’Omer holiday (Jack Guez / AFP)
Help us report truthfully on social media
As a multimedia journalist, my job is to take the quality, fact-based journalism produced by The Times of Israel newsroom and make it accessible across every platform — from Instagram posts to podcasts to short-form videos.
This is how many, especially young people, consume news these days. But misinformation is rampant on social media. Our team at ToI produces accurate, responsible short-form reporting on Israel and the Jewish world.
If you believe in the importance of factual social media journalism, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to sustain responsible multimedia reporting.
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you, David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
From the Liveblog of
Friday, April 30, 2021
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on Google
