Man says he called to warn police 2 hours before disaster, was ignored

30 April 2021, 5:09 pm

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A man who was at Mount Meron yesterday evening has told Channel 12 he called police two hours before the disaster to report the danger, but that he was told nothing could be done.

“I wanted to enter… and I saw the crowding… I was simply sucked in with the crowd, under huge pressure. I wanted to escape back but I couldn’t,” he said. “I felt my lungs were being squeezed.”

Israeli rescue forces and police near a mass fatality scene during a gathering marking the Jewish holiday of Lag B’Omer on Mt. Meron, in northern Israel on April 30, 2021. (David Cohen/Flash90)

The man, identified only as Yehuda, said he eventually managed to escape the crowd and called police to say there was “mortal danger.” He said a dispatcher told him the line was for emergency calls only and that he should talk with officers at the scene, which he did, but to no avail.

“I felt I wasn’t being taken seriously,” he said.